Bangalore: Over 1000 ATMs across the city were closed as the deadline for local and nationalised banks to station mandatory security guards outside ATM kiosks around the clock passed at 4 PM on Sunday. Several banks defied the CommisÂsioner’s orders
City police commissioner Raghavendra H. Auradkar had passed an order on Thursday instructing banks to install functioning CCTV cameras and alarm/Âpanic buttons inside ATM kiosks, along with stationing a security guard outside the kiosk at all times within three days or face the risk of having the ATM kiosk closed. The prohibitory orders came following the brutal attack on Jyothi Udaykumar inside an unmanned ATM kiosk on Tuesday morning.
Of the 2,500-odd ATM kiosks in and around the city, nearly 600 are suspected to be unguarded. However, even after 4 PM on Sunday, numerous ATM kiosks continued to operate normally, without security guards posted outside in areas like Jayanagar 3rd and 5th block, Rajajinagar, GirÂinagar, Srinagar, HanuÂmanthÂnagar, and GanÂdhibazaar.
A senior police officer told this newspaper, “Even after three meetings with bank authorities and top-level officials instructing them to station security guards outside their ATMs over the past few months, they did not pay heed. With the prohibitory order, there is no question of extending the deadline.
This time, bank authorities were given three whole days to comply with the strict instructions given to them. However, this is a gross violation of the commissioner’s orders. ATM kiosks found to have defied the deadline will be closed immediately. We have already cracked down on four ATMs in Soladevanahalli and a few more in Cubbon Park sub-division.”
