The management of the Ekushey Book Fair cancelled the allocation of four stalls and warned 20 more for violating the rules and regulations of the fair.

It also took decision to increase the number of stalls on the roadside behind the academy premises that connects Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) and Curzon Hall.

This year, around one hundred stalls have already been allotted on the road side as academy lost space at its main premises due to construction work of a new building.

Publishers who were blacklisted last year for violating rules at the fair also get space for stalls this times giving undertaking.

The management issued warning to some 20 publishers to stop selling books of other publishers as per report given by Academy's visiting team. The team during last three to four days conducted its monitoring at the fair to identify publishers and stalls which sold books violating rules, public relations officer of Bangla Academy Anwar Mushid said at a press conference yesterday.

He said the monitoring by the team would continue at the fair.

Meanwhile, readers found a total of 72 new titles at the fair yesterday. These include 13 novels, 6 story collections, 3 essay collections, 24 poetry collections, five children's books, three autobiographies, three on research, two travelogues, two rhymes collections, four history and one drama.

Even after a huge crowd at the first weekend, fair also witnessed comparatively a large crowd yesterday and the sale was also good.

Crowd was seen at the stalls set up on the road outside the academy preemies yesterday evening, which was virtually empty on first four days. Gathering of writers was also noticeable at Lekhak Kunjo. A discussion meeting on "Promising Bangladesh: Philosophy" was held at the premises of the fair as part of the month-long series programme.

Prof Jatin Sarkar, Prof Anisuzzaman and Saidur Rahman Bayati were the discussants in the programme with Aminul Islam in the chair. Galib Ahsan Khan presented the keynote paper in the programme.