Former education minister Pankaj Bora inaugurating last year?s book fair. A Telegraph picture

Nov. 30: Bookworms of the city will have to go hungry. No more food for thought, since there has been an ?unfair? deal: Dispur has given the prestigious Guwahati Book Fair a quiet burial.

The fair, which has been organised by the Publication Board, Assam, since 1984, had pioneered the book movement in the state. But the Kamrup (metropolitan) district administration has already denied the board permission to hold the 19th edition of the book fair at Judges Field from December 29.

The administration has not allotted the field on the ground that the National Handloom Expo, 2004, will be organised there from December 24. The expo will continue for 21 days.

This is the second time that the Publication Board has not been allowed to hold the fair at Judges Field. The fair was rescheduled last year and organised at the Assam Engineering Institute playground in February. The board suffered losses as the number of visitors was quite low owing to the change in the scheduled venue and dates.

The cash-strapped Publication Board received a major blow recently when Dispur clearly told board officials that it was a sheer waste of money to organise two book fairs at the same venue.

The All Assam Publishers? and Book-Sellers? Association is holding the sixth edition of the North East Book Fair at Judges Field later this week, from Friday to December 14.

?The state government has clearly told the Publication Board to club the Guwahati Book Fair with the North East Book Fair or forget about it,? a source said.

The Publication Board is putting up a brave front, continuing to maintain that it would organise the fair. But its employees themselves are pessimistic.

?Firstly, we face the problem of getting the right venue. The Assam Engineering Institute playground has also been booked till the second week of February. But what is more important, Dispur has started considering the Guwahati Book Fair a thing of the past,? a board official said.

The All Guwahati Students? Union (AGSU) has accused the state government of hatching a conspiracy to kill off the Guwahati Book Fair for good. Senior AGSU leader Bipul Rabha alleged that the government had struck a ?deal? with the organisers of the North East Book Fair to shut down the old fair.

But as Rabha pointed out, the Guwahati Book Fair has become an annual ritual for book-lovers. ?Not just books, the fair has turned into a meeting place where the intelligentsia of the state can gather,? he said.

On the other hand, organisers of the North East Book Fair have invited publishers from Pakistan and Sri Lanka to participate this year.