Ekhushey Book fair was failing to draw expected number of visitors, and the book business was pretty down due to the ongoing hartals and blockades on Tuesday, the third day of the decade-old exhibition.

Although Bangla Academy authorities claimed that the fair was going well, participating publishers are expressing their concerns that the current political turmoil in the country might hamper their business.

Thakurpada Sarkar, a salesperson at Muktodhara, one of the oldest publishers in the country, said the number of visitors is lower than last year’s, and book business is also not satisfactory on the third day.

The ceaseless strikes might hamper their business in the coming days too, Thakupada expressed his misgiving.

An official of the University Press Limited also voiced his concern saying the fair missed the usual look during the first two days, unlike last year when situation was much better.

Anup Dutta from Maula Bothers observed that visitor turn out would have been higher if there had been no political violence.

However, Bangla Academy director Jalal Uddin, also the member secretary of Fair Management Committee, thinks hartals and blockades are not hampering the book fair.

'We had a transaction of Tk 16 crore last year, and this year it will increase,' said Jalal Ahmed when asked about the publishers’ concern.

Big and popular publishing houses, however, had average books sales so far.

Anyaprakash, Agamee Prakashani, Annesha Prokashan, Tonatuni, British Council, Ananya and other giant publication organisations are a good number of visitors.

But small publication houses, such as Kali Kalam, Batighar Prakashani, Oitijhya and Gadya Padya did not sell as per their expected level in the last two days.

In spite of the concerns circling around hartal related uncertainty, all the organisations are eying at Friday, when they think the book fair will be back with its usual appearance.