Shortage of postal stamps of smaller denominations, especially of 50 and 25 paise as well as of Rs.1 and 2 at the post offices here, poses a problem to the public as well as small-time publishers, who send their periodicals to their subscribers by book post using small stamps.
Last few weeks
Severe shortage of postal stamps, with denominations below Rs.10 including that of Rs.5 stamp, has been felt across the post offices here for the last few weeks.
“We are finding it really tough to dispatch the copies of our magazines to our readers by book post due to the scarcity of 50 paise stamps,” said K.M. Janardhanan, managing editor of ‘Rasana.’. ‘Rasana’, with a circulation of around 2,000 copies, is the one and only Sanskrit magazine in the State.
Book post
According to M.K. Jayakrishnan, marketing staff of ‘Rasana’, the magazines have to be taken to the post office on a stipulated date if they are to enjoy the book post facility for a bulk despatch.
Difficulty
“With our deadline closing in, the shortage of stamps is creating great difficulty to our publication, which is already suffering from a thinning circulation,” said Mr. Jayakrishnan.
Manambur Rajanbabu, poet and editor of ‘Innu,’ a three-decade-old Malayalam literary inland-magazine with a strong postal subscription base across the State, alleged that the scarcity of stamps of smaller denominations was part of a conspiracy by vested interests to weaken postal services before privatising it.
Post cards
“Shortage of post cards has also been reported from several quarters,” said Mr. Rajanbabu.
Senior Superintendent of the Head Post Office here on condition of anonymity said it was true that there was a scarcity of postal stamps of smaller denominations in the last couple of months.
The senior postal staff, who maintained that the scarcity was an all-India phenomenon, said he did not know the real reason behind the shortage.
All efforts on
“We are making all efforts to sort out the crisis by redistributing the unused stamps at certain post offices to the regions where there are greater demand,” said the Senior Superintendent, who stated that the crisis was expected to be over in a few weeks’ time.
