PUNE: As several Marathi publications are finding it difficult to cope with the financial crisis during the lockdown, the Postal Department has relaxed its terms and extended more concessions to the publishers up to June 30.
The publishers will now be able to send the March, April and May editions of their publications to subscribers at a time, at the concessional rates.
As Sakal Times had earlier reported, the All India Marathi Editors Association, Pune had expressed concerns about the losses incurred by the publications due to lockdown.
“Usually, the publications have a particular day assigned, on which we get concessions for posting the publications to our subscribers. If we miss that day, we have to pay much extra. As many publishers are missing their deadlines due to lockdown, we were on the verge of facing huge losses,” the Association President Bhalchandra Kulkarni said.
While the association had written a letter to the Postal Department requesting them to ease terms and conditions of concessions this month, the post office has given a positive response in a letter signed by Post Office Deputy Director-General Adnan Ahmed.
“All publishers may be allowed to post their issues at any date up to June in coordination with the office of posting,” the letter read.
Kulkarni had also emphasised that many publications were lying in the printing press and many were not getting printed at all, as private presses have not been exempted from the coronavirus lockdown.
“We feared that all our printed, as well as unprinted editions, would go to waste, leading to losses. But thanks to the post office, we will now be able to send two-three editions at a time to our subscribers,” Kulkarni added.
As per the letter, “All publishers may be provided a grace period with respect to their editions scheduled to be published for three months i.e. March, April and May, 2020. This implies moratorium for not publishing their editions for the above mentioned three months. The publishers will be allowed to publish their newspapers/ magazines by combining multiple editions, skipping some editions, etc. as per their convenience up to the month of June, 2020.”
The Postal Department has also clarified in the letter that this is a mere temporary arrangement considering the period of lockdown and that pending issues of the publications will only be allowed to be posted up to June 2020.
