Patna: The postal department has come up with a scheme to revive people's interest in letter-writing in an era of electronic communication. People will be able to win prizes as well.

The theme of the letter writing has been inspired by famous song O Amar Desher Mati written by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore and participants are supposed to write the letter addressed to their motherland.

The participants have been classified in Under-18 and Above-18 categories and also based on the length of the letter they would be categorised in envelope and inland categories.

Those writing the letter in the envelope category would have a word limit of 1,000 words whereas in case of inland category the word limit will be 500 words.

Apart from sending their letters through the department of posts, the participants can also send their letter using electronic medium for which they would have to use www.mygov.in for registering oneself and then would have to go to the creative corner where one can upload the scanned copy of the letter. The last date of sending letters is September 30.

Participants can send their entries in Hindi, English or local languages. The participants would also have to submit a document as age-proof.

"The top three letters of each postal circle in Under- and Above-18 categories would be rewarded at the circle level in which the winner would get a prize of Rs 25,000 whereas the second and third position holders would get Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively," postmaster general Anil Sinha told The Telegraph.

The circle level results would be announced sometime in October.

The top three letters from each postal circle of the country would be sent for a national-level contest and at that level the winner would get a prize of Rs 50,000 whereas the second and third position holders would get a prize money of Rs 25,000 and Rs 10,000, respectively. The national-level results would be declared sometime in November.

Sharing details about people's response to this one-of-its-kind competition launched earlier this month, the postmaster general said around 600 entries had already been received and the number was set to swell because the postal department would organise special events in schools and other institutions so that more and more young people could write letters and take part in the competition.