malu kerni
Jammu: The burglary attempt at State Bank of India’s ATM centre in Kashmir and reports of robbery at ICICI ATM branch at BC Road, Jammu has one again exposed the slackness of the bank managements to conduct periodic security audits at the bank branches and ATMs.
STATE TIMES checks out safety management at ATMs after these robbery incidents were reported and find that at many ATMs security guards absent and other safety measures non-existent.
It was observed that after this demonetization one can find four to five people inside the ATM and other standing in queues waiting for their turn. Nobody follows the simple guideline written on the machine or the door ‘one person only’. There is huge chaos and confusion. There is nothing wrong in saying that numbers of ATMs in the city and especially in the outskirts are left unattended throughout the day and people too lack common sense to use it properly. Moreover, the CCTV cameras at some places were also found missing or not functioning, while at many, there were no trained security guards. It is also pertinent to mention here that the security guards deputed at many ATMs are mostly retired persons and these aged guards can be seen relaxing most of the time and they show least concern about what is happening inside the ATM. Moreover, there are many newly opened ATMs where no guidelines are displayed, no CCTV cameras are installed and no security guard placed to look after it. Here also one can find huge crowd inside and outside the ATM.
The situation is particularly dangerous at night when anybody can stalk an ATM user at will. On top of all this, there is no such panic button or alarms in the ATMs from where the victims can alert in times of danger. Important telephone number list is also missing at some of the ATMs.
Ragini Sharma, a working woman said, “It is unfortunate that 3 incidents of ATM robbery are reported so far and still there is no proper security or arrangements made by the concerned authorities. No one here follows the directions displayed on the notice board and this is happening because no one is there to keep a check on this. It is a common scene to see 4-5 persons standing in an ATM. I don’t understand that when it is written clearly that only one person should enter at a time why people don’t follow that? I understand there is panic and shortage of new currency but this is no way that people are ignoring the rules and there is mere chaos in ATMs.” Shatrughan Jamwal, a businessman shared, “I have noticed many times that at the SBI ATM machine located at Marble Market you do not find any guard or any other security arrangement. It is a big risk to withdraw money from there during the evening hours. Many a time the door is also left open and stray dogs can be
seen resting inside the cabin. No one is there to keep a check
and this is an open invitation to robbers and a threat for the
consumers.”
