when it rains currency notes .... only in Movies ~ and in Coimbatore too !!

Does your children know who poor people are ? - Poor is an adjective related to a state of poverty, low quality or pity. People who are poor are people who cannot make ends meet.  A poverty measurement isn’t quite like most economic measurements, after all. To measure poverty, you have to define it, and intrinsic in any definition of poverty are judgments about what it means to be poor, what it means to be not-poor—and what the second group owes the first. Poverty in India is widespread, and a variety of methods have been proposed to measure it. The official measure of Indian government, before 2005, was based on food security and it was defined from per capita expenditure for a person to consume enough calories and be able to pay for associated essentials to survive.

There cannot be any fixed benchmark and any measurement will have to be revised from time to time. In July 2014, a RBI report stated that those spending over Rs 32 a day in rural areas and Rs 47 in towns and cities should not be considered poor. Though many would clamour to be listed as poor when receiving free grants of Govt or get benefits -  everyone would like to become rich and famous overnight ~ currency notes, especially fresh ones fascinate people !!!

Only in Movies, we have seen gold biscuits in suitcase and currency in huge volume.  We have seen stash of currency notes only in films.  In Mani Rathnam’s ‘Thiruda Thiruda’ it was freshly printed bank notes of incredible 10 billion value in container lorry and the money trail by a group that formed the main storyline.  In  Arjun starrer Gentleman too, so much of currencies would flow.  In Rajnikant’s ‘Sivaji – The Boss’, in the climax fight on the roof of educational institution where Rajni would hit Suman, currencies hidden in roof would rain down even as the hero would leap, fly, dance, spin and hit – as the bald eagle smacks the villain, currency notes would fly in the air, much to the glee of those students who had paid exorbitantly to get a seat !.

If you that it was hyped movie scene, Times of India reports of an incident where  Rs 2.5 crore tumbled out of car after accident on highway.  

Going by this report, the Salem-Kochi national highway was strewn with cash on Wednesday morning after `Rs.500 notes started falling out of a car that had been hit by a bus near Coimbatore. Minutes later, hundreds of villagers and witnesses converged on the spot to gather the money. Police and Income tax officials are yet to ascertain the exact amount which was transported in the car.

Yasser Arafat, 28, Jaleel, 38, and Jaffer, 40, were driving from Erode to Malappuram in an Innova car when their vehicle collided with a TNSTC (Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation) bus at the Bodipalayam junction. The front doors of the car were flung open in the impact, releasing bundles of cash. Police found bundles of cash hidden inside the car, under the seats, in the dashboard and boot. While the police sent Yasser and Jaleel to government hospital, Jaffer was interrogated.

Police informed Income tax officials about the incident and managed to secure Rs.2.44 lakh. They believe the car was carrying close to Rs.2.5cr. “The IT department has deposited the cash in a bank,” said an officer from the Madukarai police station. Jaleel and Jaffer told police that the money belonged to a man named Mustafa.  They claimed that they were just told to transfer the unaccounted money to Malappuram, but did not know its source or destination,” said the police officer.

Sounds a simple statement – when one is required to fill up PAN no. for any cash transaction exceeding Rs.50000/- carrying so much of money and pretending to not knowing anything smacks of some serious crime.  There is always lurking fear of hawala transactions and money for crime flowing unabated.  Police must take serious action on this.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

8^th Jan 2015.