Chennai: In a move to help book publishers in the state and supply books to public libraries, Tamil Nadu government has decided to constitute a committee to procure books.
“Publishers do not have to worry about procurement of books to the public libraries. We have decided to formulate a committee to carry out the procurement process. The state government will function hand in hand with publishers,” state school education minister K.A. Sengottayan told publishers while inaugurating 41st Chennai book fair in Chennai on Wednesday.
Sengaottayan also said that the government is on the verge of opening IAS coaching centres in all the district headquarters. “The free coaching classes will have video-conferencing facilities among other facilities and each centre will accommodate 100 IAS aspirants,” he added.
The Booksellers' and Publishers' Association of South India (Bapasi) has organised a 13-day book festival, which will draw ardent readers from all over the state at Saint George Anglo-Indian Higher secondary school, Aminjikarai. The book fair is hosting 708 stalls, of which 234 stalls are selling sell English books, the organisers said.
The books will be sold at a discount of 10 per cent at the book fair. The fair is open to the public from 11am to 9 pm on weekends and holidays and 2pm to 9pm on weekdays.
According to the organiser, as many as 376 publishers including 102 English publishers are taking part in the fair. “We recorded a footfall of 10 lakh readers last year and expecting a footfall of 13 lakh readers this year. Books in over five lakh titles will be available in the fair and more than 10,000 new releases will come this year.
