Kolkata Book Fair at Salt Lake Stadium from February nine

Kolkata, Jan 31 (UNI) Bidding adieu to Maidan, the world's second largest Kolkata Book Fair finds in Salt Lake stadium her new home.

The 23rd book fair, whose fate was hanging in balance following Calcutta High Court's ruling negating the holding of the fair at Maidan for environmental degradation, will now be held at the Yuva Bharati Krirangan from February nine to 21.

The announcement to this effect had come as a great relief to the millions of book lovers, who literally cool their heels for the 12- day extravaganza.

Announcing the re-location of the venue, general secretary of the Booksellers and Publishers Guild, the organiser of the two-decade- long fair, Tridib Chatterjee said here this evening that an emergency meeting of Guild members had unanimously decided to hold the annual carnival somewhere else in the city by next month.

Accordingly, Mr Chatterjee said, '' After considering a number of other possible alternative sites we have zeroed in on the Salt Lake stadium where basic infrastructural facilities for holding such a huge fair are readily available. '' Since the Sports department owned the stadium, the Guild had approached state Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Subhas Chakraborty and got his permission, Mr Chatterjee informed and said the work for the preparations of the fair would begin immediately.

Meanwhile, in a protest against the court order, about1,000 book lovers, including well known writers, novelists, poets and intellectuals, today gathered at Maidan and participated in a ''symbolic Book fair'' at the old venue in the midst of unfinished structures.

Lambasting the environmentalists for being responsible for the closure of the fair at the maidan, several speakers, including city Mayor Bikash Bhattacharya, reiterated that despite the shifting of the venue from next year, the glory of Kolkata Book Fair would not wane.

This year Kolkata Book Fair, which is visited by about two to three million people every year and comes next to Frankfurt, ran into rough weather after some city-based environmentalists filed a PIL in the High Court, challenging its environmental and some other clearances.

Though the Army authorities gave the green signal, that too proved ineffective as the division bench of Calcutta High Court after conducting several hearings gave the ruling on Monday.

UNI