Three-day philately expo from Sept. 5

The Department of Posts will conduct a three-day philately expo here from September 5 to commemorate the 150 birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Senior Superintendent of Post Offices Sudhir Gopal Jakhare told presspersons here on Tuesday that the event at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University would have 119 frames with collections by students, youth, collectors, and invitees on display. “We want to propagate the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi through stamps,” he said.

The Department had also sought entries from invitees from across the State. On September 5, the Department would release a special package of postcards jointly with

The Hindu . The package with 10 cards called “Rewind, Coimbatore” would have old photos of the city. On September 6, there would be a talk on Mahatma Gandhi by Samas, the Op Ed page editor of Hindu Tamil Thisai. On September 7, a Post Crossing event would be organised in which about 40 participants were expected. This was the first time in the country that a Post Crossing event was held at a philately exhibition. The participants would be connected with those at a Post Crossing event at Beijing, China. The Department was organising the programme and the post cards would be available at a subsidised rate. “We have invited members of Rotaract Club to participate,” he added.

Apart from these, contests would be held for school students. As many as 3,000 students from 100 schools in the district were expected to take part in drawing, letter writing and quiz competitions. They could also solve puzzles and take part in philatelic workshop.

The competitions were open to children of all age groups and in any language that they wanted to write in.