BARPETA, Jan 20 - The third Barpeta Book Festival organised by Ami Barpetia Facebook Forum, a group consisting of popular social media site Facebook, will be held with a five-day programme from January 24 to 28. The festival is going to be held at Barpeta Vidyapeeth playground.
As per the programme, the festival will commence with a cleanliness drive at 7 am on January 24. Entrance to the festival will be opened at 10.30 am by Gunindranath Das, MLA of Barpeta constituency.
Priyaranjan Das, president; and Dr Kamal Krishna Das, working president of the festival management committee; will unfurl the festival flag at 10.45 am that day, followed by tributes to departed souls. The entrance to the book stalls will be formally inaugurated by veteran academician, writer and former president of Barpeta district Sahitya Sabha, Akshyay Kumar Mishra, at 11.30 am.
Competition on recitation scheduled at 12 noon that day will be inaugurated by Nayan Kumar Das, Food Safety Officer of Dhubri district. The inaugural open meet, to be held on the same day in the afternoon, will be presided over by Priyaranjan Das, president of the festival management committee.
The meeting will be inaugurated by eminent physician Dr Sayed Ahmed Zadid and it will be addressed by Dr Dhrubajyoti Borah, former president of Asam Sahitya Sabha; Gunindra Nath Das, MLA of Barpeta; Thaneswar Malakar, writer; Dr Bhushan Chandra Pathak, Principal of BH College; Munindra Sarma, Deputy Commissioner of Barpeta; and Dr Robin Kumar, Superintendent of Police of Barpeta.
The souvenir Harijan, to be published on the occasion, will be formally released by Dr Dhrubajyoti Bora, while some other publications will be released by Thaneswar Malakar.
Barpeta Ratna, an award introduced by the organisers, will be conferred during a special function to be held on January 24 evening. It will be presided over by Dr Birinchi Kumar Das, Principal BHB College, Sarupeta. The award will be presented to veteran musician and academician Satyakrishna Mishra.
The cultural programme to be held in the evening will be inaugurated by veteran dramatist Liakat Ali.
On January 25, Atul Chandra Goswami Debate Competition will be organised. It will be inaugurated by Samiran Baishya, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Barpeta. Pranabjyoti Goswami, Superintendent of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Cell, will inaugurate a quiz competition at 2 pm.
Competitions on painting, galpakatha, general knowledge have been scheduled on January 26. A meeting to felicitate distinguished persons will also be held at 4.30 pm on the same day.
A competition on �Go As You Like� will be held at 10.30 am on January 27. Poets� Meet is also scheduled at 12 noon on the same day. It will be inaugurated by Ratul Kumar Das, District Elementary Education Officer of Barpeta. The Poets� Meet, to be conducted by veteran poet Dhruba Kumar Talukdar, will be attended by renowned poets.
An intimate discussion between the book sellers and organiser will be held at 12 noon on January 28, followed by an open meeting which will be presided over by Dr Kamal Krishna Das, working president of the festival management committee.
Dr Amarjyoti Choudhury, former vice-chancellor of Tezpur University, will address the meet as the chief guest. Prize distribution ceremony will be held on the same day afternoon, which will be presided over by Kanakeswar Dev Sarma, vice-president of the management committee.
