Visitors throng the Guwahati Book Fair at Judges Field on Wednesday. Picture by Biju Boro

Jan. 7: The government’s proposed move to restore sporting activities at Judges Field has left the organisers of various fairs in the city worried. The step will nullify the gains that such fairs have accrued to the local entrepreneurs over the years.

Vehemently opposing the proposed move, Jatin Hazarika, president of Industries and Trade Fair Association of Assam, said the field should remain under the district administration and should be utilised for public purposes along the lines of the Calcutta Maidan. The association has been organising the hugely-successful International Guwahati Trade Fair, which will host its eleventh fair next month.

“I am not against sports but there are several fields which are being used for sporting activities like the Nehru Stadium, Sonaram Field, Latasil, Chandmari. More such grounds will come up by the time the 2005 National Games are held.

“But fairs are held only at the Judges Field and over the years these have grown in stature and have provided livelihood to scores, a fact acknowledged by the government by way of trying to set up a permanent venue near the Balaji Temple.

“But our objection is why should the field be reserved only for sports when there are so many alternatives? If at all it has to be reserved, it should be for public functions along the lines of the Calcutta Maidan under the control of the local administration,” the former bureaucrat said.

Bowing to pressure from the sports organisers, including the Gauhati Town Club and Guwahati Sports Association, the government had agreed last year to restore sporting activities at the Judges Field from September 1 but the move is yet to fructify. The sports association had sought restoration of sporting activities to tide over the acute scarcity of playing grounds in the city and stop the crass commercialisation of the field.

Hazarika’s views were shared by Rana Patgiri and L.. Tamuly, who have been actively involved in the organisation of the handloom fairs and the ongoing Guwahati book fair respectively. Patgiri said, “It is a bad move. Earlier, we were starved of jobs, now we will be starved of quality trade ties, which the fairs helped establish. Without providing an alternative, the move to disallow fairs will negate the gains that small time entrepreneurs have made over the years”.

“The Pragati Maidan-type alternative cannot be an answer. It will take time for the fairs to normalise at a new venue and not everyone can participate at such fairs. The administration should seriously look into all such aspects lest the move to revive sports at Judges Field does not hit the interests of local industries and entrepreneurs. In fact, hundreds of families are surviving on the money earned by participating in these trade expos and fairs,” Patgiri said.

Others associated with fairs, contended that shifting it to a new site would see a lot of foreign participants pulling out. “It is all very nice to say that a new venue will come up but we have to accept that it cannot be an alternative to a centrally-located and secure place like the Judges Field,” one of them said.