Uttarakhand: POs overflowing with 'generosity'

The Head Post Offices in the state are witnessing an unprecedented rush as the last date of the special arrangement to send relief materials to the flood victims in Uttarakhand without any postage charges is nearing. A large number of people are turning up at the special counters hoping to contribute their bit for the suffering thousands in the last two days of the service.

Boxes containing clothes, medicines, tarpaulin, plastic sheets, torches, long shelf-life foods etc are piling up at the head post offices in the state ever since the inception of the service. Materials have been coming from various institutions, agencies, non-governmental organisations and even general public.

“We have been receiving a great response from the public as the sender will not be required to pay any postage charges. The service is available at all the 51 head post offices in the Kerala Circle till July 20. One can send any number of packages which do not weight more than 35 kilograms each,” said P Suseelan, Assistant Director (Financial Services) of Kerala Post. The packets should be securely packed and marked as ‘Relief material for Uttarakhand’, addressing to Senior Post Master, Dehradun GPO, Dehradun-248 001 (Uttarakhand).

“The packets should not contain any liquid, breakable items or any other items prohibited for transmission through post offices. The substances that are prohibited according to the Airports Authority of India and IATA norms are also not permitted. Certified medicines are exceptions, even though they are in liquid form,” he added.

“The materials gathered are collected from here each day and dispatched to Dehradun. The number of senders have increased as the closing date of the service is nearing,” said Vijayan, an employee at the General Post Office, Thiruvananthapuram.

“We came to know about the arrangement from the news. So, we approached the office after collecting some clothes to send them, aiming at adding our share to the cause,” said Jose Antony, a law college student. The Pankajakasthuri College of Engineering and Technology sent 28 packets of clothes collected from students on Friday from the Thiruvananthapuram General Post Office. Several religious groups and student organisations are also making contributions, taking advantage of the service.  Taking into account the huge number of senders every day, there have been demands to extend the last date.

Source : http://newindianexpress.com