Monday, June 19, 2006

Joint Training Session For Police, Customs, Income Tax, Prosecution And Forest Officials On Fake Currency And Wild Life Act



A days training program on identification of counterfeit currency and Wild Life Protection Act was organized by DK Police at Police guest house, Mangalore on 19th, 2006. Besides Police Officers of the district, Officers of the Customs, Income Tax, Forest and Prosecution Department atended the two training sessions.

The focus of first session was on identification of counterfeit currency and Resource persons from The Reserve bank of India Bangalore took this session. In this the Officers were made aware of the various stages of evolution of Bank notes in India and the security features that determine the notes of various denominations in India were explained. The participants also had an opputrunity of hands on session where in they were asked to differentiate between fake and genuine notes based on the security features. In addition the RBI Officers also enlightened the participants about the new bank notes containing more security features that have ben introduced in the country from June 2005 onwards.

Before this in the opening remarks Mr.B.Dayananda SPDK explained the purpose behind organizing the training progrom by pointing at the large number of fake note seizures in this part being made by the district police. He mentioned that counterfeit currency is becoming a major problem for law enforcing agencies especially in costal areas like Manglore. He pointed out that by the interrogation of the arrested persons there is information that the persons sitting abroad are sending fake currency to India by various means. The quality of fake currencies being seized these days is very good and they resemble genuine currency notes in all aspects and it is very difficult to identify through naked eye. He also mentioned that persons dealing with counterfeit currency have nexus with Illegal drug dealers and Terrorists and there is need to curb this menace before it becomes a major problem for Indian Economy. Now that international flights are likely to operate from Mangalore, there is need for greater caution in this regard and hence the involvement of the Customs officials in this progrom, he explained.

Mr. V.S. Maniyan AGM and Mr. Gupta Asst. Manager RBI Bangalore dealt with the evolution of Indian currency since 1935 -2006. They explained the role of RBI in introducing currency notes in the market. Further they dealt in detail about the security features of Indian currency of Rs. 50/, 100/, 500/ and 1000/ denomination.


In the second session Mr. K.S.N. Chikeroor IGP (CID and Forest Cell) enlightened Police Officers, Prosecutors and Officers of Forest and Animal Husbandry about the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 and Karnataka State Forest Act. He pointed out that Illegal Wild Life trade is the second largest illegal trade after illegal drug trade in the world. He also mentioned that smugglers are supplying fake pelt by painting the skin of other animals as they are getting very high price in international market. Further he discussed the powers to the Police regarding the investigation as per Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 and Karnataka State Forest Act. Mr. Chikeroor mentioned that this part of the state (western ghats) is one of the biggest biosphere in the world with diversity of flora and fauna and it needs a lot of efforts from the side of law enforcing agencies for the protection this biosphere. He appreciated the work done by the Dakshina Kannada Police in protection of Wild Life and mentioned that after CID Forest Cell it is D.K. Police which is putting maximum efforts in this field. During this session Mr. Jawahar SP Forest, Madikeri was also present.

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