National Book Trust to launch ‘Panchayat Book Fair’ soon

New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) The National Book Trust (NBT) is planning to organise book fairs in villages and rural parts of the country as part of its "Panchayat Book Fair" initiative that aims to encourage reading habit among the rural masses, an official said on Thursday.

"The aim is to take books to rural areas with the help of Panchayats. The children and youths in villages are very enthusiastic about reading, but due to absence of proper libraries and book shops, they are often deprived of getting good books," said NBT Chairman Baldeo Bhai Sharma at an event organised here.

"With Panchayat Book Fair, they can get access to a variety of books at a time under one roof," he added.

According to the Chairman, the states initially selected for the Panchayat Book Fair are Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The NBT is planning to start the project either from November or after the completion of World Book Fair 2018.

"This is a big initiative by NBT and we wanted to start this as a model project in smaller states. Panchayat Book Fair will be carried further to other states with time," Sharma said.

The NBT, the national body for book publishing and promotion functioning under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, will be completing 60 years of its foundation on August 1.

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