Printing error? Gandhi image missing from 'genuine' Rs 2,000 notes in MP

Currency presses have been working 24x7 to produce a year's output in just 5 months

The cash crunch has had an unlikely casualty; Mahatma Gandhi's likeness on a batch of the new Rs 2,000 notes. The Times of India reported on Thursday that farmers in a village situated in Madhya Pradesh have received newly printed Rs 2,000 notes without the Bapu's image printed on them and they are not fake.

According to the national daily, at first the farmers thought that the notes were counterfeit but bank officials soon dispelled any such doubts and declared them "genuine". The officials cited a "printing error" as the cause behind the anomaly. Further, citing bank and police sources, the report said that many such notes were in circulation in that region. 

Upon being notified, the State Bank of India branch from where the farmers had received the currency took back the notes. The notes, according to the report, were printed at the Bank Note Press in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh. 

Haste, overworked presses to blame?

As reported earlier by Business Standard, the country's currency presses have been working 24x7 to produce an year's output in just five months. The country has four such presses, located at Mysuru, Salboni, Dewas and Nashik. 

Of the four presses, the one at Mysuru has the best printing lines. Till demonetisation, this press, along with the one at Salboni, printed the bulk of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Dewas and Nashik, with older machines, print Rs 100, Rs 50, Rs 20, Rs 10, Rs 5 and Rs 2 notes. With the import of one machine line in 2015-16, some of the demand for the Rs 500 note can be met by the Dewas press.  

An official had previously told the Business Standard: “Our problem is that the rejection rates of notes in the two facilities (Dewas and Nashik) are over 15 per cent. The rates in Mysuru and Salboni hardly ever cross one per cent.”  

The RBI’s indent for printing of Rs 500 notes is 5.7 billion for the current year and that for Rs 1,000 notes was 2.2 billion. The latter has been scrapped and replaced with a demand for Rs 2,000 notes. In five months, the automated presses at Mysuru and Salboni, which can run 24 hours without a break, have to print the same number of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes earmarked for the earlier Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes over 12 months.