From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Nov 22: Even as ASSOCHAM claimed that barely 50,000 of the nearly 1.5 lakh ATMs in the country had security guards, Karnataka’s former Law Minister and senior BJP leader S Suresh Kumar has urged the State Government to enforce stringent conditions for banks to improve security for the users at ATMS in the state.
In a letter to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, copies of which have been released to the media, the BJP leader presented a slew of demands, including compulsory installation of emergency alarm bells and only one ATM machine per ATM centre.
Expressing concern over rising number of crimes at ATM centres, Suresh Kumar said that it was shocking to know that over 600 ATM centres in the city do not have security guards.
The attack against the 44-year-old lady, Jyothi Uday, manager of the Service Branch of Corporation Bank, who was attacked by a huge machete inside an ATM near the BBMP office in Bangalore early in the morning, was an eye-opener for all banks and the country, he said.
He urged the chief minister to immediately act on ensuring security of the citizens using these ATM centres.
The demands voiced by the BJP leader include installinng card-operated automatic doors for all ATM centres so that no outsider enters it while a customer is already inside the centre.
He suggested several measures, including installation of the glass panel for the doors, one ATM machine per ATM centre to eliminate entry of another person in the guise of using the other machine inside the ATM centre.
He said permission should not be granted for opening ATM centres at isolated places and steps must be taken to ensure that the CCTVs are functioning properly and installed appropriately to serve their purpose.
Deployment of armed security guards round the clock at all ATM centres would help to reduce crime, Kumar told the State Government.
The ASSOCHAM, in an assessment of the security situation of the ATMs across the country, noted a shortfall of nearly 1.5 lakh security guards merely for the ATM operations.
Of the about 1,25,000 ATMs in the country, barely 50,000 were guarded while only 1.15 lakhs were covered by the CCTVs.
The shocking incident at Bangalore underscores the need for recruitment of the guards at expeditious speed to ensure that all the ATMs were properly guarded and equipped with security gadgets, other than CCTVs, said Secretary General of ASSOCHAM D S Rawat while releasing assessment to the media.
"While recruitment of guards and manning all the ATMs 24X7 may be time consuming and costly affairs,” he said the quick answers lie in using hi-tech security gadgets like automatic alarms, improvement of camera footage and even setting up central monitoring rooms from city-to-city requiring a perfect coordination between the banks and the police authorities.
"At least in big cities, the banks should encourage and promote use of credit cards and more and more merchandise outlets should be covered by the plastic money so that the use of hard cash is reduced. This would not only help reduce security risks but also help the economy capture the transactions and thus, reduce the unaccounted money," said Rawat.
The direct spin-offs would also be felt on the increasing demand for the private security industry, which has been growing at 25 % in the past 5 to 7 years showing the significance of security installations in most of manufacturing hubs.
In major installations of petroleum and petrochemicals, power including nuclear power, steel, cement, airways, airport and seaports, the ASSOCHAM said public-private-partnership was required.
But certainly, the costs of securing people and vital installations are going to increase, because things cannot be left to chance any more
Among most sought after security gadgets required would include high-tech CCTV surveillance, access control and intruder alarm equipment, video surveillance, electronic security, wireless equipment/technology, installation tools, supplies and accessories, fire extinguishers, rescue device, security bodes and doors and entry/exit screening systems etc, adds the ASSOCHAM assessment.
Although domestic security market in India is quite advanced but India’s imports dependence for security items would mainly stay with countries like USA, European firms and security related companies in countries like Korea, China, Taiwan and Japan, it said.