Visakhapatnam: Post the brutal attack on a woman in an ATM vestibule in Bangalore, the private banks in the city are keeping their ATMs shut between 11 pm and 6 am as a precautionary measure, much to the inconvenience of common people.
They have implemented this shutdown in response to security agencies across the country including Visakhapatnam, ordering bank officials to ensure the safety of its customers in the wake of the mishap. Funny how the simple idea of employing security guards never occurred to them.
According to recent reports, 182 of 359 ATMs in the city were unguarded due to which commissioner of police, B. Shivadhar Reddy summoned bank officials in a meeting, ordering them to equip all ATMs with CCTV cameras and providing security guards round the clock.
To maintain a diplomatically safe position, few banks in the city have decided to operate only those ATMs at night which are associated with bank branches as the same security guards who are employed to protect the bank, can be used for the ATM.
“We have been sent orders from our bank headquarters that non-branch ATMs be kept shut between 11 pm and 6 am. As not more than 2-3 transactions take place between these hours, it becomes financially unviable to hire a security guard and to keep the air conditioner in the ATM on the whole night,” said Vamsi Krishna, assistant manager at HDFC.
When a state level senior official at HDFC was contacted to enquire about the same, he declined to answer over the phone and did not send a reply to an email on the same issue.
Chandra Mouli, deputy manager at Karur Vysya Bank, the other bank which has decided to shut down its ATMs at late night, cited similar reasons of security, power wastage and savings.
A security guard employed at an ATM in the city said on condition of anonymity, that the security company which employs him got a circular from HDFC, KVB, Union Bank of India and ICICI that non-branch ATMs will be shut down in the city between 11 pm an 6 am.
When asked, officials at ICICI and UBI denied any such directions.
