NGO to move court against book fair in maidan

Kolkata, Nov 7: Even though Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee made the Army fall in line for perpetuating the Kolkata Book Fair in the lush green maidan area, the prospect of the prestigious annual carnival taking place in its traditional venue is likely to run into rough weather as a leading NGO today threatened to move the court.

'' The chief minister might want the book fair to be held on the Maidan. But we shall challenge it in the court,'' environmentalist Subhash Dutta told a press conference.

Mr Dutta, who heads Howrah Ganatantrik Nagarik Samiti, a platform of green activists, reminded that it was the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Government that promised a few years back not to allow any abuse of the Maidan, the heart of the otherwise polluted city.

Organised by the Publishers and Book Sellers' Guild, the book fair, a prominent event on international chart, is being held in the maidan for more than three decades. However, it was following a Calcutta High Court order in 2003 that the book fair was set to be shifted to the city's eastern fringe by the side of Eastern Metropolitan Bypass from this year. This sounded a crash in coffers that the event fills in crores every year.

Owned by the defence, the Maidan is the area where sports stadiums and the famous Victoria Memorial are located. It is also the place where hundreds of people take morning strolls.

But the Chief Minister, who is a patron of the book fair, declared last week that the Government and the Guild would appeal to the Calcutta High Court to allow the book fair, an important cultural event, to be held at the Maidan. Reasoning that the fair should be centrally located for the benefit of book lovers, the Chief Minister also promised to help maintain the maidan's green and environment. The defence, owner of the Maidan, ultimately gave a verbal consent to the proposal.

Guild general secretary Tridib Kumar Chatterjee had also said the book fair was very special and most awaited cultural event of the city and it could not be equated with any other fair. He said the Guild had cleaned up the entire stretch of the venue last year in four months.

But whatever the Chief Minister may propose, Mr Dutta disposes, ''The way the book fair is held destroys the maidan's green and causes immense harm to the city's environment. It is for months that a portion of the Maidan is turned into a veritable vat with the left overs of food, crumbs and garbages making a heap in the area after the fair is over,'' he said.

He argued that Kolkata was already severely short of greenery with only one per cent area being open as against a required 20 per cent.

'' We demand a proper Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report by any central independent agency to ascertain whether the book fair indeed destroys the greenery,' Mr Dutta said.

UNI