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Credit cards can reduce ATM risks

Assocham takes stock of kiosks' security, finds daunting challenges.

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The violent attack on a woman in an ATM kiosk on Tuesday morning has underscored the need for providing 24-hour security at these cash-dispensing machines. The problem, according to an Assocham assessment, is compounded by the fact that there is a shortfall of about 1.5 lakh security guards required at ATM booths across the country.

According to the assessment, of about 1.25 lakh ATMs in India, only 50,000 are guarded, while only 1.15 lakh are covered by CCTVs.

“The shocking incident at Bangalore underscores the need for recruitment of the guards at an expeditious speed to ensure that all ATMs are properly guarded and equipped with security gadgets, other than CCTVs,” said DS Rawat, secretary general of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), while releasing the assessment report in New Delhi on Friday.

While recruitment of guards and manning all ATMs 24X7 may be time-consuming and costly affairs, the quick answers lie in using high-tech security gadgets like automatic alarms, improvement of camera footage, and even setting up central monitoring rooms that require perfect coordination between banks and the police, according to Rawat.

“At least in big cities, banks should encourage and promote use of credit cards. More merchandise outlets should be covered by plastic money so that the use of hard cash is reduced.
This would not only help reduce security risks, but also help the economy capture transactions and thus, reduce unaccounted money,” said Rawat.

The direct spin-offs would also be felt on increasing demand for the private security industry, which has been growing at 25% in the past five-seven years, showing the significance of security installations in most of manufacturing hubs, according to Assocham.

In the major installations of petroleum pumps and petrochemicals, public-private partnership is required for nuclear power, steel, cement, railways, airport and seaports, the Assocham paper remarked. But certainly, the costs of securing people and vital installations are going to increase, because things cannot be left to chance any more, it added.

Although the domestic security market in India is quite advanced, India’s import dependence for security items would mainly stay with countries like the US, the paper pointed out.

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