Now, postal department to deliver pamphlets at voters' doorsteps in Allahabad

ALLAHABAD: With election campaigning catching pace, candidates and their supporters need to be ready to face the heat, literally.

The soaring mercury is set to trouble those campaigning door-to-door in both urban and rural areas. At such a time, the postal department is set to give some relief to political parties with a novel method. According to a new scheme, the department will deliver pamphlets of candidates in their chosen area through Direct Post.

The director of postal services for the Allahabad region, Krishna Kumar Yadav, said as it would not be possible for candidates to reach each and every house in their constituency and also follow restrictions on processions and road shows, the postal department scheme would help them in canvassing for votes.

While social media has limited access in rural areas and there are limits enforced by operators on text messages on mobile phones, direct post may be the best choice for candidates campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections.

Under the scheme, candidates and parties can hand over election pamphlets to the post office and a postman will deliver them to all the houses in the area specified by them. The cost is just Rs 1.5 per pamphlet but there should be at least 1,000 of these for a package.

The director further said that with increasing commercial activity, the need for direct advertising of products and services is growing.

Direct Post is the unaddressed component of Direct Mail and would comprise unaddressed postal articles like letters, cards, brochures, questionnaires, pamphlets, samples, promotional items like CDs, coupons, posters, or any other form of printed communication not prohibited by the Indian Post Office Act, 1898, or Indian Post Office Rules, 1933.

For local distribution, India Post would charge Rs 1.5 per article for the first 20 grams and Rs 2 per article for distribution anywhere in the country. However, for every additional 20 grams or less, in both local and inter-city cases, Rs 1 extra would be charged, Yadav added.

Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/