Visakhapatnam: Prohibition and excise officials on Sunday destroyed over 13 tonnes of dry ganja, worth over Rs 7 crore, at the dumping ground near Marikavalas here.
It is probably for the first time that such a huge quantity of dry ganja was destroyed a single day.
Assistant commissioner of excise (enforcement) S.V.V.N. Babji Rao said the ganja had accumulated over the past few years at the excise stations of Narsipatnam, Chintapalle, Pendurthi, Anakapalle, Payakraopeta and Vizag city.
Mr Rao said the apex court had given guidelines that the seized ganja has to be destroyed in a scientific manner from time to time, to avoid being misused.
Sources said that storing the contraband, listed under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Subs-tances (NDPS) Act, had turned into a headache as some officials had pilfered the seized ganja and sold to the smugglers.
HRD minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, excise commissioner Lakshmi Narayana and Vizag superintendent of police Rahul Dev Sharma were present when the ganja was set on fire.
