Agartala, April 2 : Bibliomania gripped the people of Tripura as the 36th edition of Agartala Book Fair kicked-off on Monday.
Tripura Governor and writer Tathagata Roy inaugurated the 12-day-long book fair in the presence of Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, his deputy Jishnu Debbarma, Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath, Agartala Municipal Corporation Mayor Prafulla Jit Sinha and eminent writer Tilottama Majumder.
Before leaving for New Delhi, the Chief Minister in his brief speech said the state government was keen to organise book fairs at the district, sub-divisional and block levels.
"Share a good book among your friends to spread the knowledge and motivate excellence in all spheres of the society," Deb said.
Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Debbarma said from this year, the state government had introduced two more awards -- Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya National Integration Award for outstanding contribution in the field of social service and the Kalikinkar Debbarma Award for excellent performance in classical music.
He said Upadhyaya was an eminent Indian thinker, social worker and much-regarded politician, while Debbarma was an eminent sitar player hailing from Tripura.
Debbarma said these two new awards, along with 12 other awards introduced by the previous Left Front government, would be handed out during the book fair.
The names of the awardees are yet to be announced.
