After the incident of a lady drawing cash from ATM attacked by miscreant in Bangalore, police has given instruction to bankers either to provide security guard, alarm bell and CCTV at each ATM or they will close the ATM shutters. It is true that providing Armed Guard at ATM or keeping CCTV facility or alarm bell in ATM may provide safety to some extent.
But the root causes of such type of incidents lie in not only absence of security guard at ATM but also in several other factors.
One of the key factors is total lawlessness in the country. People do not want to lodge even FIR at police station on any criminal act committed by criminals. Rather people of India hate police and abuse police for providing protections to criminals and torturing innocent. On the contrary criminals do not fear police and do not fear judiciary because they know the art of managing the police or court cases in their favour. They know how to motivate police force and how to motivate judges through their advocates or any other middleman in courts.
This is why Criminals can attack not only in ATM, they can loot any branch anywhere in India irrespective of the fact it is manned or unmanned by security guard. There are hundreds of instances where branches or cash van secured by number of security guards have been looted in broad daylight and police fails to even catch them in many cases of dacoity and loot. Not only banks or ATM, even any house situated in any corner of the country are subject to risk of attack from criminals and terrorist and naxals. In such position, it will be better on the part of Bangalore police to demand provision of security guard, CCTV and alarm bell in every home, every office and every nook and corner of the country.
In our country, quality of majority of security guards provided at bank’s branches or in ATM is also questionable. Such guards are neither physically fit, nor adequately trained and nor bold and competent enough to cope with criminal attacks. They simply sit idly outside ATM and any street boy can push him away to do what he or she likes to do.
Thirdly it is pity that bank management do not think it necessary to provide security guards even in all Branches dealing in cash , not to speak of ATM where cash is secured to a great extent in comparison to open cash at branches. It is primarily due to the fact that bank management do not have enough capacity to spend on security. They do not have enough manpower to provide for operation in branches. They open the branches without adequate manpower and adequate infrastructure. This is because they do not have any vision how to secure their bank and their workforce who are prone to risk of criminal attacks at many branches. They do not bother even if such bank officials indulge in bad lending to get rid of local musclemen or powerful politicians.
Banks which cannot afford for respectable wage hike to own staff cannot dream of providing security at ATM or at branches or to its customers.Profit making motto has become dominant over social security and social welfare in the era of liberalization , globalisation and privatization.
Bank managements are simply opening branches after branches and ATM after ATM and such mad rush for opening of new branches and new ATM is simply to please ministers .They never think it wise to recruit enough strong guards and enough manpower to man the branches they open. Further even if they decide to recruit manpower for any post, they have to oblige various Netas, castes, communities, government officials and other VIPs in the matter of all types of recruitment sacrificing the quality.
Lastly even rulers of this country do not want to build pressure on bank management to properly plan their manpower and other related infrastructure before branch expansion and enlargement of ATM network in the country.
Government of India should formulate branch and ATM expansion plan to stop mad rush and reckless expansion undertaken by different banks to compete with each other but at the cost of public money and jeopardizing the interest of customers and investors.
Finance Minister has to stop advising banks to open thousands of branches and ATM in short span of time without giving them enough time to manage the affairs in right and effective way. They have to stop allotting unachievable and sky touching targets to bankers and they have to stop corruption in all recruitment, promotions and transfers and so on.
Security at ATM cannot and should not be considered in isolation. Broad outlook with long term vision has to be in place to secure all persons and all banks and all ATMs and all houses. Otherwise I have no doubt that these politicians who are making only voted bank oriented plans for banks will force bank’s complete failure and collapse sooner than later
As a matter of fact if police forces are active all the 24 hours in a day there is no possibility or rare possibility of criminals attacking innocent people in ATM or elsewhere.Even now instances of criminal attacking common men at common places , shops, residences and offices are more than that at ATM
Netas have to stop their habit of interfering in police matters and stop using all incidents for vote bank. Politicians have to stop putting wrong and baseless allegations against police. Politicians have to stop accusing police of false encounters for political gain. Politicians have to stop speak openly against police force to stop demoralization of police forces. If there is any case of real injustice by police with any person, they should learn the habit of lodging their grievance in writing with some other forum or grievance redressal organization. This culture has to be inculcated in all offices and in all departments.
If security is made available for all citizens at all places , I think banks will not need providing security guards or will not demand charges for withdrawal of money from own ATM or other bank’s ATM from own customers or other bank’s customers.
The style of functioning of Aam Admi Party in Delhi will very soon open the eyes of traditional politicians and create an atmosphere where corrupt officials , corrupt police personnel and corrupt politicians will be forced to stop their corrupt practice and start thinking in the interest of common men willingly or unwillingly. If police become vigilant 24 hours and do their duty sincerely , no security guard will be needed either in banks or in ATMs.
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