Chennai Puthaga Sangamam
The book fair ‘Chennai Puthaga Sangamam’ organized by Th e Periyar Self-Respect Propaganda Institution in association with National Book Trust, India from April 2013 as part of the WorldBook Day celebrations.
‘Chennai Puthaga Sangamam’ was conducted for 10 days from 18th to 27th April, 2014 at Royapettah YMCA Ground, Chennai successfully, wherein 140 leading book publishers and book sellers participated. In order to inculcate more reading habits in the public, especially younger generation, a large variety of programmes became integral part of the event. On 18th April 2014, ‘Chennai Puthaga Sangamam’ was inaugurated by His Excellency Dr. M.A.Sikandar, Director, National Book Trust, India.
• Every evening, cultural programs like children’s play, comic plays, mimicry, magic show, multi festivity event, folk art & street play were conducted.
• Address by eminent writers, scholars, publishers and other personalities of public significance.
• ‘Puthagar Award’ to scholars who have put in hard work and who have sacrifi ced their entire life for the cause of library maintenance, book collection and nurturing the
reading habit.
• Workshop for publishers was conducted for fi ve days. Well experienced publishers,writers and administrators delivered lectures.
• Book Bank Scheme through voluntary donation from generous donors of books,school & college text books.Th is multi pronged event- integration enabled more people (about 60,000 visitors) despitethe General Election process, to participate from all sections of the society and all the agegroups. ‘Chennai Puthaga Sangamam’ made indelible imprint in the professional fi eld and proved a grand success as a pioneering model in organizing innovative and inclusive book exhibition.
In view of the success experienced in the last 2 years with “ChennaiPuthagaSangamam”, this year World Book Day Celebration event will have all the features mentioned above and we have made elaborate publicity arrangements through Press to reach larger audience.
