Preparations on for Guwahati Book Fair on Thursday. Picture by S.H. Patgiri

March 17: The organisers of the forthcoming Guwahati Book Fair have pledged to donate 20 per cent of the profit earned from the 19th edition of the fair for the rebuilding of the B. Borooah College.

The book fair will be inaugurated by chief minister Tarun Gogoi at the Assam Engineering Institute playground at Chandmari tomorrow. The fair, organised by the Publication Board, Assam, will continue till March 29.

Higher and technical education minister Bhumidhar Barman today told the media that 20 per cent of the profit from the fair would be contributed for rebuilding the B. Borooah College.

?B. Borooah College is more than just an educational institution for the people of Assam as it was set up by a freedom fighter like the first chief minister of Assam, late Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi. The book fair is a non-profit- making venture, but whatever profit the board will make from the event, 20 per cent of it will go for the revival of the college,? Barman said.

The publication board had made a profit of Rs 3.5 lakh from the fair last year.

Secretary of the publication board, L.N. Tamuli, said 88 publishers from all over the country would participate in the fair.

?Participants from Calcutta, New Delhi, Agra, Agartala, and other places will set up stalls at the fair. Boipatra, a leading publication house of Dhaka, will also take part in this year?s fair,? Tamuli said.

Thirty new books on language, literature, culture and history, printed by the publication board, will be unveiled at the fair.

?Moreover, the publication board has also reprinted 40 valuable books which are still the most sought after and will be made available at the fair,? Tamuli said.

The fair will be open from 11 am to 8.30 pm and entry will be free for students up to the university level.

The fire-ravaged B. Borooah College has another reason to cheer about. The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has awarded it a B++ grade.

The peer team of the NAAC had visited the college in December last year and assessed the different departments of the college.

A.D. Mukhopadhya, former vice-chancellor of Vidyasagar University, member co-ordinator J.K. Mohapatra, Sambhalpur University, Debabrata Choudhury, principal of Ashutosh College and academic consultant K.N. Madhusudan Pillai were part of the peer team.

College authorities said they received the accreditation certificate a day after a major fire devastated the college on March 3.

Rekha Deka, principal of the college, was unavailable for comment. A college official said the peer team during its visit had appreciated the quality of education offered by the college and the research-oriented faculty members.

?The team had visited various departments,? the official said.

College authorities have already begun getting the debris cleared from the college campus. Army personnel had promised to clear the charred structures but failed to turn up even today.

?We have entrusted some people to clear the debris at our own cost. The work began this morning. It will take two more days to clear the entire dump,? the official added.