Academics at a function in Rangpur called upon everyone to create habits for reading books to enrich enhance knowledge by removing ignorance for building an enlightened society.
They came up with the call at the inaugural function of the third six-day Book Fair-2019 held on the Independence Memorial premises in the campus of Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur (BRUR) on Tuesday.
The BRUR units of socio-cultural organisation ‘Gungun’ and cultural organisation ‘Ranon’ are jointly organising the fair that will remain open from 11:00am to 8:00pm every day and conclude on February 17 next.
A total of 26 stalls and book publication houses were set up by different organisations on the fair ground.
Language movement veteran and former Mayor of defunct Rangpur Pourasabha Mohammad Afzal, fiction writers Masud Ul Haque and Ashan Uz Zaman formally inaugurated the fair as invited guests.
Vice-Chancellor (VC) of BRUR Professor Dr Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah addressed the inaugural function as the chief guest.
Representative of Ideal Publications Shakil Masud, Organiser of Divisional Writers’ Forum Zakir Ahmad, writer Rezaul Karim Mukul and President of BRUR unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League Tushar Kibria addressed the function.
President of ‘Gungun’ and Assistant Prof Umar Farooque of BRUR presided over the function while President of ‘Ranon’ and Associate Prof Dr Tuhin Wadud moderated it.
Mohammad Afzal stressed on arranging similar book fair frequently in all educational institutions to generate interests among the students, common people, especially young generations, to enrich Bengali cultural and literary heritages, reports BSS.
“Reading of books always enhances knowledge through removing immorality from the mindset of everybody to enlighten the person, community and society on way to build a peaceful and progressive nation,” he added.
The chief guest called upon everyone to uphold values and sprit of the great Language Movement that sowed seed for the struggle for Independence which was achieved by the nation in 1971 through the War of Liberation.
“Everyone should increase the habit of reading books and encourage others to do the same for acquiring more knowledge in building an enlightened, peaceful and prosperous society,” the VC added.
