Thrissur: No' to Gandhi postal cover

Thrissur: The Thrissur Philatelic Club has alleged that chief post master general (CPMG) of Kerala refused to issue a special cover on Mahatma Gandhi in view of the 150 year of his birth anniversary when it approached him for the same. Normally, special postal covers are issued by the postal department after collecting Rs 25,000. An agreed number of the covers are then given to the postal department free of cost for sales as postal envelops.

“While the postal departments of other states are very co-operative with the philatelic clubs, the department here is showing less interest,” secretary of the club Olvex M. Norohna said. “We approached the CPMG Kerala with the request for the special cover on Gandhi for the exhibition we re conducting in view of his 150 birth anniversary but it was rejected on two grounds: the exhibition was named ThrissurPex (Thrissur Philatelic Exhibition) and the club was not related to Mahatma Gandhi.”

Special covers were issued in the past by the department along with post mark cancellations for shows named ‘ThrissurPex’, he said.  

The chief post master general was not available for a response when DC contacted over the phone.

“Mahatma Gandhi is a theme for a large number of stamps in the world and we have put up for show at the ongoing exhibition several single frames of Gandhi’s stamps, miniature sheets and commemorative covers,” club secretary Madhusudhanan R. Shet said.

The show with several themes starting from that of the first series of postal stamps named Penny Black released in 1840 in Britain to elephants, orchids, Buddha, Lenin, Nehru family among others will end on Sunday.