Despite attempts to sort out the crisis by the Department of
Posts, a shortage of stamps that are much in demand has been felt across the
post offices here for the last few months. Now, the demand is being met by
issuing stamps of smaller denominations from the existing stock.
Post offices across the state are suffering from the scarcity of
stamps of smaller denominations, especially Rs 4 and Rs 10. Now, the public
demand is being met through the sale of stamps mostly of Rs 5 denomination. As
a result, the post offices are swiftly running out of Rs 5 stamps.
According to the postal authorities, a shortage does exist, but
it is yet to reach acute levels. “Stamps are there for public usage, but not
for bulk demands. There are not enough stamps to satisfy bulk customers and for
diversion purpose,” officials said.
The stamps have started coming from Nagpur according to the
intents
sent to
the Circle Stamp Depot (CSD). The postal department had earlier directed to
divert stamps from Patna to the state, but this was not brought into effect.
The stamps of Rs 4 denomination will
soon be available as the supplies have started coming, according to the
officials. Stamps of Rs 10 are expected to arrive in the next supply, they
added.
Each year, the list of stamps that are deficient in each postal
circle is issued by the CSD following the intents sent to it.
The range of denominations of excess stamps is different for
each circle. This time, when the estimate was made, the CSD had suggested to
divert excess stamps from each circle to the circles where there was a deficit
of stamps of that denomination. The complication of the process had caused much
delay and had also affected the calculation of requirement after the diversion.
The post offices in the Kerala
circle had experienced an acute shortage of the smaller denomination stamps
earlier also. Then, the reason cited was the short supply of stamps from the
India Security Press (ISP), Nasik.