West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said appropriate measures need to be taken by authors and publishers of India and Bangladesh to stop piracy. According to Banerjee, required permissions need to be taken from all concerned persons including authors and publishers to ensure the smooth reprint of books in both countries.

“I think we should see that books are reprinted across both the countries but only after they have the required permissions,” Banerjee said while inaugurating the 37th edition of the Kolkata Book Fair. Organised by the Publishers and Booksellers Guild, the annual book will be a 15-day event and will close on February 10. Bangladesh is the theme country for this year’s fair.

Apart from Banerjee, the Finance Minister of Bangladesh Abul Abdul Muhith, noted Bangladeshi author Anisujjaman, and Bengali author Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, were present on the occasion. According to Banerjee, despite the threat from digital media and Internet (e-books), the habit of reading or browsing through a book has not gone. “People still love to go to a shop. Browse through pages and read the book offline rather than doing so on the Internet. I do not see any threat to books from the digital media,” she said, adding that despite a boom in television channels, people still prefer reading newspapers.

Three of Banerjee’s books — a compilation of her poems (translated in English) and two books authored by her — were also released at the fair. Apart from the book fair, the Kolkata Literary Fest will also take place at the main fair premises beginning January 30. This will be the second edition of the Literary Fest.

> abhishek.l@thehindu.co.in

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