Bangla Academy is not getting Suhrawardy Udyan for Amar Ekushe Book Fair 2025. Therefore book fair should be held only in Bangla Academy. A letter has been given to Bangla Academy authorities from the Ministry of Housing and Public Works in this regard.
According to the letter of the public works authority, according to the decision of the meeting held on November 21, 2023, the Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2025 should be organized at Bangla Academy premises instead of Suhrawardy Udyan. This letter was sent from the Ministry of Housing and Public Works on November 6.
Due to the objection of an authority of the government regarding the venue of the fair, the exact location of the next book fair has apparently fallen into some uncertainty.
Since the beginning of the book fair, it has been in the premises of Bangla Academy, but since its range has gradually increased, since 2014 stalls have also been allocated in Suhrawardy Udyan, opposite to Bangla Academy.
Confirming the letter, Bangla Academy Director General Mohammad Azam told Ajker Patrika, 'I did not get permission to hold Amar Ekushe Book Fair at Sohrawardy Udyan. But we will try to do it there. Because, in the last decade, there has been a public desire to hold fairs there. I will apply to the Ministry of Culture so that the book fair can be held in Suhrawardy Udyan. The Ministry of Public Works and Housing has asked to organize the fair inside the premises of the academy. But we want to hold a book fair in Suhrawardy Udyan.'
Ekushey Book Fair is being held across Bangla Academy premises and Suhrawardy Udyan for a decade. Recently most of the fair stalls are allocated in this garden. However, discussions were going on for several years whether the book fair will be organized in Suhrawardy Udyan, which is under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works. During the ousted Awami League government due to the project related to the preservation of the history of the independence war, there was talk of moving the fair from Suhrawardy Udyan. It received strong criticism from various quarters including publishers and readers.
Chittaranjan Saha, one of the pioneers of the country's publishing world, started selling books by spreading mats at the gate of Bangla Academy on Language Day in 1972. In 1978, the then Director General Dr. Ashraf Siddiqui associated Bangla Academy with this book fair.
