Friday, August 19 2005 12:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: CBI yesterday (August 18, 2005) sought cooperation from State Governments and other central security agencies in its efforts to curb the menace of fake Indian currency notes (FICN).

Inaugurating a workshop on circulation of FICN here, CBI Director, U S Misra, said, cooperation could be done in many ways, including collection of criminal intelligence and apprehension of the accused.

He regretted that unlike in some of the developing countries, India did not have the concept of federal offence.

Speaking about the problem of counterfeiting of currency notes in the country, the CBI Director said, until recent times this remained one of the minor offences and seldom received attention.

However, certain disturbing developments during the past have brought the problem centre stage and it has captured the attention of top echelons of law enforcement agencies, he said.

Misra said that technology developments in drawing, design and printing, advances in computer hardware and software have facilitated production of fake currency in quality and large quantities and the ease with which counterfeiting is being done has contributed to the rise in the magnitude of circulation.

He said the Naik Committee estimation puts the number of fake currency notes in circulation to 61,000 millions pieces amounting to 169 crore till the year 2000 and such a huge gap in estimated circulation and seizures offers serious challenge to the law enforcement agencies.