First Day Cover released on Platinum Jubilee of INS Circars
INS Circars celebrates platinum jubilee
The Hindu
Commodore
KP Gopal Rao, who served as Commanding Officer of INS Circars from 1974
to 1976, cutting a cake to mark the platinum jubilee of INS Circars in
Visakhapatnam on Friday. Commodore Saleem M. Anwer, the present
Commanding Officer of INS Circars, is at right. Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam
Unveiling the
Platinum Jubilee plaque, plantation of saplings by former commanding
officers, cutting of a special cake and release of a Special First Day
Cover by the Postal Department marked the Platinum Jubilee celebrations
of INS Circars, the first Naval establishment in Visakhapatnam, here on
Friday.
Post
Master General of Visakhapatnam Sharda Sampath released the special
First Day Cover brought out by the Postal Department to mark the
occasion in the presence of Commodore Saleem M. Anwer, the present
Commanding Officer.
Director of Postal Services Upender spoke.
Commodore K.P.
Gopal Rao, former CO INS Circars, unveiled a plaque and later planted
saplings along with some former COs. There was bonhomie among the
retired COs and officers as they recalled their ‘golden days’ with
nostalgia. They later posed for group photographs with the present
officers and men of the unit.
Commodore Gopal
Rao, Commanding Officer from January 3, 1974 to January 16, 1976,
recalled the historic day on December 4, 1971, when the Indian Navy
attacked the Karachi Harbour. “We had to do lot of strategic planning
and move our ships at economical speed as going at high speed would
result in high fuel consumption and running out of fuel. There was the
threat from Pakistan submarines and aircraft. Three days later, we had
launched an attack on oil tanks at Karachi,” he said.
Commodore
Saleem M. Anwer recalled how the Naval establishment had a humble
beginning in a single building near the present Visakhapatnam Port on
December 12, 1939. It grew from strength to strength and was christened
HMIS Circars during the British rule in 1942 and was re-christened INS
Circars, post Independence.
The Depot Ship
(as it is technically called) used to provide operational, training,
administrative and logistics support but the operational and training
wings were de-linked subsequently.
Source : http://www.thehindu.com/
