CHENNAI: Labourers living in the camp at Pallikaranai, where National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials said that the three men involved in circulation of fake currency notes lived, expressed shock over the arrest as residents in the locality fear circulation of counterfeit notes in their area. Following the incident, local panchayat authorities have plan-ned to approach the police to help create awareness on fake currencies. Labourers from other sta-tes living in Sunambu Kolathur, Pallikaranai, who are working in construction sites in the city, could not believe that their fellow labourers picked up by NIA had been using fake currencies.They claimed that close to 1,000 persons working as supervisors and unskilled labourers from Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand were living in three separate camps for more than two years.On Sunday, three labourers from Malda in West Bengal living here were picked up by NIA sleuths for circulating fake currencies.“There are so many people speaking different languages living in the camp. We do not even know if those persons lived with us,” said Riashath, a labourer from Ranchi.A gatekeeper in one of the camps, where close to 650 people stayed, claimed that soon after the arrest, the rest of the labourers were also questioned if they had any links with the arrested men. “Only after reading the newspapers, all of us came to know about it. We know one of the arrested persons, Prashant Mondal, lived here,” he said. “We all have come here to earn a living. Now, we are in trouble because of this incident. We will also be suspected,” said Sham Seiz, a labourer from Jharkhand.Meanwhile, residents living in the vicinity of the camps said that they were worried that the arrested men could have circulated fake currencies in the area. “I have seen labourers buying medicines from pharmacy with currencies of ` 500 and `1,000 denominations. There are provisions stores, pharmacies and hardware stores in our area. How will the shopkeepers know the difference between original and fake currencies?” said S Killivalavan, a resident of Maxworth Nagar in Sunambu Kolathur.A Ranganathan, president, Kovilambakkam village pan-chayat, said that they would approach the local police to help create awareness among residents on the fake currency racket. “We fear that fake notes could have been circulated here as the labourers from other states live here in large numbers. We will request the local police to help us create awareness among the people about fake notes as people here do not know how to identify such currencies,” he said.
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