While cautioning the bank officials to gear themselves up against the emergence of new methods of burglaries and robberies, the Superintendent of Police, Amit Kumar Singh, expressed displeasure over the manner in which some banks approached the meetings to review security aspects.
Mr. Singh showed his annoyance at the meeting held here to review the security in banks, after it was noticed that State Bank of India was represented by just one branch head who expressed his inability to take any decision by himself.
The same was found to be the case with some other banks too, as they sent representatives who were not connected with the implementation of security measures. “Why cannot senior level managers or security officers participate, even though the Lead Bank had convened the schedule of the meeting well in advance,” he quipped.
The meeting found that many branches of leading banks, did not have strong rooms. A report highlighted that burglar alarms and CCTV cameras in certain branches were not working. Mr. Singh told The Hindu later that mere installation of CCTV cameras and burglar alarms were not enough. Rather the banks should conduct periodic security audits to ascertain whether such appliances were functional.
