Saturday, January 11, 2020

Thieves a pain for sellers at book fair

Yogesh.Kabirdoss@timesgroup.com

Chennai:11.01.2020

They are casually dressed and act like eager bookworms desperately looking for their favourite title among the thousands on display. What they actually want is just a few seconds of attention away from them so that they can tuck a couple of books under their arms and saunter away.

Such thieves, regulars at almost every such gathering, have become a nightmare for sellers and publishers at the ongoing the 43rd Chennai Book Fair at YMCA in Nandanam. Several stall owners have increased the manpower to ensure nothing is lost. R Vijayakumar, a city-based book dealer who has stocked 20,000 books under 500 titles, says people stealing books is a regular phenomenon. “This year, we have added two more people to keep a close watch on such individuals,” said Vijayakumar, who has set up his stall in the first row.

This year, with nearly two crore books under 15 lakh titles on display in nearly 800 stalls, the threat of theft is high, say sellers. Inquiries made by TOI revealed that those who participated in last year’s edition together lost books valued between ₹3,000 and ₹10,000. S Ravi, an associate with a publication, said that 200 to 300 books were stolen during the fair in 2019. “We are clueless about the theft and come to know only during the final accounting. It is difficult to control the menace because our entire concentration will be on assisting genuine buyers and completing the billing process at the cash counters,” he said.

There has been no report of any incident of books being stolen in the current fair, which began on January 9 and is set to continue till January 21, said Ravi.

The usual targets of thieves, say representatives at the various stalls, are the books of leading authors and children’s books. Some sellers stressed that introducing barcodes on book covers and scanning books are sorely needed to prevent theft and to ensure that no book can exit the venue without being billed.

When contacted, R S Shanmugam, president of Booksellers and Publishers’ Association of South India (BAPASI), said that 50 CCTV cameras had been installed at vantage points at the venue and that several volunteers had been tasked with looking out for thieves.

“There have been instances of book thieves being caught and handed over to the police in the past,” he added.


BEWARE: This year, with nearly two crore books under 15 lakh titles on display in nearly 800 stalls, the threat of theft is high, say sellers

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