Bhubaneswar: Even as people struggle to exchange banned `500 and `1,000 notes and withdraw money from ATMs, counterfeit coins of `10 denomination have been found to be in circulation in the capital city.
Anti-socials and criminals have used the demonetisation confusion to flood the market with fake coins. According to sources these coins have reached the state from Delhi and Kolkata.
Delhi police had recently busted a fake coin racket in the national capital.
Many shopkeepers here are not accepting `10 denomination coins as they are unable to distinguish between the real and fake ones.
“After our customers started going to big shops we started accepting `500 and `1,000 notes. But their ban has led to currency crunch. Now we have suffered another hit with fake coins. Banks are not accepting fake coins and so we have refused to take `10 coins,” said Bansidhar Swain, a vegetable vendor at Rasulgarh.
“I got the coins from a railway passenger as I did not know it is a fake. Although, the government is after big economic offenders, this ban has affected poor people like us,” said Samal Pradhan, an auto rickshaw driver.
Small traders and daily wage earners said `10 may be a small amount for some; it is a big amount for poor people like them.
“I request authorities to confiscate these fake coins since it is the poor people who will face the immediate impact,” said Niranjan Sahu, a street food vendor.
Orissa POST contacted RBI regional office here but officials refused to comment. “The responsibility for coinage vests with the Government of India and its circulation is through RBI. Coins are minted at the four India government mints at Mumbai, Alipore(Kolkata), Saifabad(Hyderabad), Cherlapally (Hyderabad) and Noida (UP). We are not authorised to give a response on the issue,” said a top RBI official.
But, some bank officials informed this newspaper that they can confiscate the fake coins and submit it to RBI if some tries to deposit them.
Bhubaneswar police commissioner YB Khurania assured they will take action against those circulating fake coins. “We will consult the RBI and will take immediate action,” he said.
Jose K Joseph
Post News Network
