The State government has given gave a three-day deadline to all banks to provide security at all ATMs. This is following the attack on a woman in an ATM kiosk in Bangalore city on Tuesday.
Home Minister K.J. George on Wednesday chaired a high-level meeting with senior police officers here and instructed all bank managements, both private and nationalised, to provide security at all ATMs located in the city in the next three days.
The Minister obtained information from the officials about location of ATMs of various banks in the city and the number of security personnel deployed.
Addressing presspersons after the meeting, the Minister said there are 2,500 ATMs in the city and 600 of them are unmanned.
It was the responsibility of banks to provide security at their ATMs. The banks should close down all ATMs if they are unable to deploy security personnel, Mr. George warned. He said a committee, headed by Additional Chief Secretary S.K. Pattanaik, has been constituted to formulate guidelines on providing security at ATMs. The committee comprises officials of the Law Department, banks and the Home Department, Mr. George said.
He added that in future, banks have to obtain permission from the Home Department for setting up ATMs. He advised banks not to set up ATMs in remote areas and bank managements to monitor functioning of CCTVs through control rooms.
He said a special squad would be formed to assess the locations of unmanned ATMs in the city.
