Mega Erode Book Festival begins

A 12-day mega Erode Book Festival, organized by the Makkal Sindhanai Peravai, an NGO, began on Friday evening. CM Stalin  inaugurated it through video conference from Chennai.

CM INAUGURATES:  In the presence of the Peravai president lawyer  and programme organiser T.Stalin Gunasekaran,  the 18th annual Book Festival began on Friday began at the Chikkaiya Nayak College Grounds in Erode in grand manner. Chief Minister declared open it at 5 pm and delivered inaugural address. District Collector H. Krishnanunni presided. Housing and Urban Development Minister S.Muthusamy and National Welfare Awareness Movement Chairman SKM.Mayilnandan, Mayor 
S. Nagaratnam felicitated the function.

NO ENTRY FEE: Book Festival will be held till August 16. Book stalls are open daily from 11 am to 9.30 pm. There is no entry fee for the Book Festival. 230 stalls are set up in the Book Festival and lakhs of books are piled up for sale.

 Out of 230 halls, 70 halls have English books and about 30 percent halls are set up for school and college students and youths preparing for the competition. Every day from 10 am to 1 pm new books of writers will be released in the festival.  

LITERARY PROGRAMME: Daily in the evening literary  programmes, special platform to meet writers, creators, etc will be held. Publishers will offer 10 percent price discount to public and 10 to 35 percent discount to schools and colleges.

 Bookshelves will be provided at concessional rates to set up small libraries in homes and schools. Students who purchase books worth more than Rs. 250 will be given a book enthusiasts certificate. 

He said that we are planning to give more than one lakh hundials to the students at concessional prices to encourage the habit of buying books and saving habit.