Civic officials were left bemused after a plastic trader from Vasai, fined Rs 5,000 for stocking banned items, walked into the civic headquarters on Thursday and handed over three plastic bags filled with coins in denominations of Re 1, Rs 2, Rs 5 and Rs 10. “We were surprised on seeing the coins. But we had to accept it and gave him a receipt,” said assistant municipal commissioner Sukhdev Darveshi, who had fined the trader Amit Mehta.
But the civic officials’ task did not end there as the coins had to be counted for accounting purposes. Two civic staffers sat down to count and recount the coins and after about 45 minutes found that it was short of Rs 70. They called up Mehta and informed him. Later in the day, Mehta returned to the VVMC headquarters and paid the balance Rs 70, again in coins.
Reuters/Representational Image