ATM attack: Delhi, B'lore crack down on banks is lazy governance

An incident in Bangalore in which a woman was attacked with a machete inside an ATM has led to a number of state governments cracking the whip on banks, telling them to ensure security for their ATMs.

A day after the incident on Wednesday, the Karnataka government told banks in the state to either provide security for the ATMs, or close them down. Home Minister KJ George held a high-level meeting and said more than 600 of the total 2,580 ATMs in Bangalore city have no security guards. “We want them to deploy security guards immediately or close down the things until suitable arrangements have been made…..that’s why the Police Commissioner (Raghavendra Auradkar) will take appropriate action,” he told reporters.

In Delhi, police have taken note of the attack and issued an advisory to banks in the city, directing them to strengthen security measures at their ATM premises.

According to a report in the Indian Express , “The advisory orders the installation of CCTV cameras within banks and cash vans for ATMs in a way that they are hidden from plain view. The CCTV cameras on the ATM premises should be installed in a way that the horizontal view of the face of the person coming to the ATM is clearly captured”.

The report also quoted a senior police official as saying that the issue of security of ATMs and cash vans had been taken up with the Chief Security Manager of the RBI.

Another report from Mangalore , another town where most ATMs do not have guards and those that do are mostly unarmed, quoted a bank employee as saying security is usually outsourced.. “…  the agency appoints old persons for the lowest possible salary as security,” he is quoted as saying.

just a handful of the ATMs had security, that too without any weapons to act as a deterrent.

But how fair is it to put the blame on the banks themselves? Are the state governments concerned merely passing the buck on security here?

As Firstpost editor Rajesh Pandathil points out in this piece , “Putting the responsibility to provide security at ATMs on banks may be easy. But that surely is not the right way out.”

The issue, he says, is also principally about public safety. Let’s not forget that the incident occurred at an ATM that was not only five minutes away from the bank, but also situated close to a police station. “It reminds us that we are vulnerable even in public places. And public safety is the government’s responsibility”, he adds.

Firstpost editor R Jagannathan further elucidates this point in his piece where he says, “The horrific attack on a woman at a Bangalore ATM tells us how wrong our priorities are. It is not a UPA versus NDA issue on how safe Bangalore or other cities are. It is not a Congress versus BJP issue on how women are preyed upon in various states ruled one party or the other. It is a more fundamental question: what should be a state’s priorities when it comes to what it should do for its citizens?”

He adds, “If public safety is the first duty of the state, the paraphernalia to ensure that – effective policing, a sound and efficient legal system, and an independent law enforcement machinery and judiciary – are related priorities. But this is precisely what our politicians – almost all of them – have sabotaged…The Bangalore ATM victim is not going to be the last citizen to pay for this reversal of priorities with bodily harm or injury.”

Fourty four-year-old Jyothi Uday was attacked inside an ATM on JC Nagar in Bangalore on Tuesday morning. She is said to be stable now.

According to TV reports, doctors treating Jyothi Uday have said that she is stable after undergoing one surgery, but the injuries inflicted on her have left her right side paralysed. The CCTV camera footage, obtained by police from the bank, shows the unmasked assailant entering the kiosk when Jyothi was before the ATM to draw cash, and threatening her after pulling down the shutter from inside.

The woman was repeatedly hit with a machete by the assailant, leaving her in a pool of blood for nearly three hours before the incident came to light when two school children saw blood stains and informed a policeman who shifted her to the hospital.