Plan for stamp on Kurien in 2021 has S'mogga link

Come 2021, expect a postage stamp on Verghese Kurien, popularly known as the Milk Man of India.

The Centre is contemplating to bring out a definitive stamp on Kurien on his birth centenary. The idea behind the stamp proposal has a Shivamogga connection.

The plan is the brainchild of D V Mallikarjuna, retired dairy engineer of Shimul (Shivamogga Milk Union Limited), a unit of the Karnataka Milk Federation. The Philatelic Bureau of India Post has already initiated the work based on the recommendations by leaders of various parties, including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former chief ministers B S Yeddyurappa and D V Sadananda Gowda. The Indian Dairy Association, based in New Delhi, has also appealed to the Centre to bring out a stamp on Kurien, who shaped lives of lakhs of farmers across the country.

Mallikarjuna told DH that it all started with a phone call made to S Vincent, Dean of Research, Loyola College, Chennai, two months ago. “I appealed to him to celebrate National Milk Day on November 26, the birth anniversary of Kurien, in his institute as Kurien was an alumnus there. Vincent regretted that Bharat Ratna had not been conferred on the Milk Man of India. He suggested me to take the initiative in bring out a stamp on Kurien”.

Following this, Mallikarjuna submitted memoranda to Yeddyurappa, Sadananda Gowda, former union minister, the late Ananth Kumar and Manmohan Singh. They forwarded the same to Union Minister for Communications Manoj Sinha. In a letter dated October 20, Singh informed Mallikarjuna that Sinha had promised to bring out a stamp on Kurien.

India Post plans to release the definitive stamp on a special occasion, on Kurien’s birth centenary, which falls on November 26, 2021. A definitive stamp is released once in two years on a special occasion.