Nine-day book fair organised in Shimla as part of 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav'

Shimla: As a part of 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav', a nine-day book fair has been organised in Shimla on Saturday from June 25 to July 3.

"It is a very proud moment for our nation that National Book Trust (NBT) has decided to choose Shimla for this book fair. I have been associated with NBT for a long time. I was a part of Operation Blackboard and retired as an Administrative Officer from the Department of Education", said RL Chauhan, a local reader.

He also added that the lockdown period during COVID-19 has also helped the people to improve their reading habits and it is helping the young people to read more books.

Yuvraj Malik, organiser and director of the national book trust, says, "The entire nation is celebrating Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav and this book fair is a part of it. Our aim is to promote the culture of book reading and give the book readers and writers a platform so that this culture of book reading can be passed onto our next generation".

"We are getting a good response in terms of participation. More than 45 publishers and over 70 stalls can be seen here in every language especially Hindi, English, Punjabi, Urdu & Pahari languages, with a focus on children's literature", Malik said.

The Education Minister of the Himachal Pradesh government, Govind Singh Thakur, said that to inculcate the book-reading habit among young children, the government is building libraries in different parts of the state and these kinds of book fairs would be promoted in other parts of the state so that people of the state can read more books. (ANI)