GUJR AT: Due to a row between the district accounts office and the General Post Office (GPO), driving licence stamps are unavailable at the GPO for the more than a month, causing a delay in issuance officences.

The GPO officials say they have already deposited Rs4.2 million to the accounts office for stamps; however, the accounts office officials say the GPO had requisitioned the stamps of extra amount rather than of the available balance of Rs3.7 million.

On the other hand, touts operating in the compound of the district government have arranged the stamps from the neighbouring districts and they are now fleecing the people by sale of the stamps at exorbitant prices.

Each person, applying for the licence, has to paste stampsworth Rs1,000 with his application for issuance or renewal of his licence.

The officials at the licensing branch of the Gujrat traffic police say they had brought the issue into the notice of accounts office as well as the GPO but the required stamps are still not available anywhere in the district.

On Monday, some applicants had lodged a protest at the GPO after the officials failed to provide them with the stamps despite repeated visits by them.

Senior Post Master General Zulfiqar Shah said his office had sent the voucher of the amount to get stamps from the district accounts office, saying the GPO was only the selling the stamps.

The stamps were not being issued to the GPO on some technical ground involving the internal sections of the accounts office though the GPO had sent Rs4.2million the accounts office weeks ago.

The GPO officials had been facing the wrath of drivinglicence seekers though the issue was not created by them, said Mr Shah, adding that the matter would be resolved within thenext couple of days.

District Accounts Officer Chaudhry Afzaal said it was the GPO office that had caused delay in issuance of stamps as it had sent the requisition of stamps worth Rs4.2 million but the balance available under this head of the GPO was Rs3.7 million. He said his office had asked the GPO to revise its voucher but the GPO was reluctant in doing so since the senior officials of the postal service could initiate an inquiry against the responsible officials for sending a wrong voucher.

Mr Afzaal said the GPO had been pressing him to issue the stamps against Rs3.7m instead of Rs4.2m but he could not do so without the formal documentation and revision of the voucher by the GPO because the provincial accounts office had also forbidden him from issuing the stamps without proper documentation.