Stamps worth Rs 75 crore reduced to ashes

It took officials 20 hours to destroy the stamps

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In a massive operation that lasted nearly 20 hours, stamps worth a staggering Rs 75 crore were destroyed by the district treasury office in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar on Thursday. The stamps, which were demonetized due to being withdrawn from circulation, were first shredded into tiny pieces by machines and then burnt to ashes.

The destroyed stamps included denominations ranging from Rs 1 to Rs 25,000, with the bulk of the value lying in stamps of Rs 5000 and Rs 1000 denominations. These stamps had been lying unused in the treasury office for the past two decades.

The destruction exercise was carried out under the supervision of a committee headed by district stamp officer Vivek Gangurde and treasury officer Shekhar Kulkarni. The process began at 7 am on Thursday and continued until the wee hours of Friday morning.

Speaking to reporters, Gangurde informed that the destroyed stamps were not related to the infamous Telgi stamp scam that rocked Maharashtra two decades ago. He clarified that the demonetization and subsequent destruction of the stamps were part of a routine exercise undertaken by the government to remove old and invalid stamps from circulation.

How much were the stamps worth?

Stamps Value

Rs 1000 Rs 12.90 crore

Rs 5000 Rs 46.80 crore

Rs 10,000 Rs 5.97 crore

Rs 15,000 Rs 1.46 crore

Rs 20,000 Rs 6 crore

Rs 25000 Rs 2 crore