13th October is the Philately Day. India Post, Mumbai which has commenced celebration of the National Postal Week from 9th October has come out with a unique philately merchandise –a ‘Stamped Mask’. These are the masks, with images of postage stamps imprinted on them. This initiative of India Post, Mumbai is an attempt to make masks attractive and also drive home the importance of the role played by Masks during the current Covid situation.
India Post, Mumbai, like other government departments has been in the forefront in creating awareness about Covid 19 and joined the Covid Appropriate Jan Andolan campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 8th October. Wearing of Masks is one of the three key messages of this campaign.
As part of the National Postal Week celebration, the department has planned various activities. Each day of the week is dedicated to a particular postal service offered by the Department, like the Banking Day, Postal Life Insurance Day etc.
In a bid to create awareness about the role and importance of postal sector in socio-economic development and the impact ‘post’ leaves on the lives of people, India Post has decided to launch the ‘Know Your Beat Postman’ initiative.
Post Master General, Mumbai Swati Pandey says “a virtual card containing the name, beat number, area of service, contact number and photo of the postman / postwoman, would be circulated to customers, which will help them to know their postmen better and contact them directly in case of any emergency.” There are 1,549 postmen in Mumbai City and the Suburban district.
“It may be mentioned here that the postal staff played an extremely crucial role during Covid 19 lockdown, when the courier services were not working. “The tireless service of postmen towards humanity by delivering medical and PPE kits, old age pensions, parcels etc, undoubtedly deserves highest appreciation” adds Pandey.