Company shortlisted for supplying notes blacklisted: Chandy

Former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy today said one of the four companies said to have been shortlisted for supplying plastic notes appeared to be "blacklisted" which he felt smacks of corruption.

Producing portions of a copy of a report of the Public Untertakings Committee of Parliament in 2013, he alleged that the company was named in it for not meeting certain security parameters for printing 1365 million pieces of Rs 100 notes during 1997-98.

The parliamentary panel, then chaired by Jagadambika Pal, had cited grave implications of such move and "fervently emphasised that outsourcing of printing of currency notes/minting coins should never be resorted to in the future", Chandy said.

"Now, a company, against which a Parliamentary committee had given a report in 2013, has been roped in by the Government for supplying plastic notes. It is a big scam. A joint parliamentary committee should probe it," Chandy said in a Malayalam note distributed at his press conference here.

He said the parliamentary panel has noted that the very thought of India's currency being printed in three different countries is alarming to say the least.

With Congress leader and Parliament's Public Accounts Chairman K V Thomas by his side, Chandy, citing newspaper reports, claimed that the banknote manufacturer was earlier "blacklisted" by the Union Home Ministry.