3-day philately expo from today

Tirupati: The Tirupati Postal Division is all set to conduct a district-level philately exhibition ‘TIRUPPEX-2018’ for three days from November 15 in the pilgrim city. It is being conducted with the active cooperation and support of Philately Bureau, Tirupati and Philatelists of Chittoor District with a view to promote the hobby of collecting stamps and give an opportunity for the philatelists to showcase their collections.  

It will be held at TTD’s Sri Padmavathi Kalyanamandapam here and District Collector PS Pradyumna will inaugurate the exhibition on Thursday evening, said the Postmaster General, Kurnool Region TM Srilatha. Speaking to the media here on Wednesday, she said that the expo will have about 100 frames and in each frame 16 A4 size sheets affixing postal stamps and stationery can be mounted.

Renowned philatelists from Telugu states–T Ramalingeswar Rao of Hyderabad, Prakash Reddy of Guntur and GV Suresh Rao of Nellore will exhibit their collections as invitee class and 23 entries of exhibits were received for competition in seven categories. She said that younger groups are actively involving in this and it was quite encouraging as five entries were received in Youth Club Juniors section. 

On this occasion, five special covers will be released on three days on different subjects of importance. On the first day, a special cover on micro irrigation will be released while on the second day, covers on Suka Brahmashramam, Srikalahasti and Srikalahasti temple will be released. On the third day, special covers on former speaker of Lok Sabha Madabhushi Ananthasayanam Ayyangar and on Jana Gana Mana which was translated into English by Rabindranath Tagore while sitting in BT College, Madanapalle. 

The Superintendent of Tirupati Division G Srinivasa Murthy has said that they will bring out a souvenir which can be preserved as a valuable reference book/memento by philatelists as it would contain articles on postal history and various facets of philately from reputed experts in the field. Also, competitions will be conducted for schoolchildren in letter writing, painting, quiz and prizes will be distributed. 

Several schools have been showing interest in this and about 5,000 students are expected to visit the exhibition. On all the three days, my Stamp counter and philately counters will be held at the venue which the visitors can make use of them, he said.