Currency printing in MP gets Army aid

Jawans of the Indian Army have been drafted in to assist the workers of the Bank Note Press in this town in Madhya Pradesh where production of bank notes has been going on in full swing since the demonetisation announcement last month.

Jawans of the Indian Army have been drafted in to assist the workers of the Bank Note Press in this town in Madhya Pradesh where production of bank notes has been going on in full swing since the demonetisation announcement last month.

Printing at Bank Note Press in Dewas is on full throttle. (HT file photo)

The jawans are expected to stay for around three months to boost to the production of new currency which has lagged behind its target. Over 200 jawans and officers from Gwalior and Mhow reached the Bank Note Press in Dewas over the weekend and started working at the BNP from Monday morning. They will be assisting in both printing and also in the dispatching of the bank notes to various places in the country, officials at BNP said.

At present there are 1300 employees and officers working at the BNP in three shifts of eight hours and are producing 15 million pieces of currency, whereas they had been given the target to produce 20 million notes every day.

Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL) CMD Praveen Garg visited Dewas twice in the last month to boost the morale of the workers and also to interact with the management.

A senior BNP official who did not want to be named said that the army personnel would be staying at the BNP campus and would eat at the Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) mess. The CISF provides security at the BNP.

There is enthusiasm among the workers of the BNP over the arrival of the jawans at their factory. One of the workers, Kamal Chouhan said, “We are glad that Army jawans have come to help us. The production of currency notes will surely increase after their arrival. It will also give us an opportunity to interact with the jawans at close quarters.”