Banks continue to ignore safety rules at ATMs

Tirupati: Despite several theft incidents at ATMs reporting from several parts of the State, banks continue to maintain less security at them. The situation is even worse in remote villages. On Saturday, Palamaner Police have busted a five-member gang of ATM cards cloning.

The gang members belonging to Tamil Nadu, Mumbai and Sri Lanka had cloned the ATM cards from Palamaner SBI ATM and later withdrew Rs.1.58 lakh from one account. On enquiry, it was found that they were doing the crimes for many days and looted Rs.12.5 lakhs from various savings bank accounts of SBI at other places.

In September this year, thieves struck an SBI ATM on the outskirts of Madanapalle. They used gas cutter to open the ATM to steal the money. About Rs 20 lakh was looted by the gang in the incident. Besides the thefts, incidents of attacking the customers at ATMs were also reported in the past. The miscreants, who attacked a woman at an ATM in Bengaluru three years ago, were arrested near Madanapalle in February. Why adequate security is not provided at ATMs?, the customers question.

There are about 700 ATMs in the district. Out of these, 530 ATMs belong to Public Sector Banks while and 150 belong to Private Sector Banks. Sapthagiri Grameena Bank and post office are also having limited number of ATMs. SBI is having most number of ATMs. But, majority of banks were not showing interest to provide security at the ATMs.

They store lakhs of rupees in ATM chests, but not showing concern on their security. Private agencies were entrusted to feed the currency in ATMs. Security guards are provided at the ATMs where banks keep more currency. At other places, no guard can be seen.

The police department on their part issued guidelines to all the banks long back to provide adequate security personnel. Had the security guards were employed at the ATMs, Madanapalle incident would not have happened, said a bank official. As it involves huge financial burden, banks have not been taking the security aspect seriously.

Even when the security guards were employed they are of little help in case of any untoward incident as they were not equipped to attack the culprits nor to protect bank property. In fact, they were in a position that they could not protect themselves with empty hands.

A security guard said, `` In night duty there a bit of tension prevails always”. A customer, Suresh Babu commented, `` Normally only one person has to enter into ATM cabin at a time. But everybody is surrounding us. And they were even using mobile phones. Who will control this in the absence of security guards”?

By V Pradeep Kumar