All ATMs must be manned round-the-clock: Pande

Kolkata: State Consumer Affairs minister Sadhan Pande has instructed the banks to ensure round-the-clock manning of all the ATMs in the city. The minister also assured that his department will take all possible measures to ensure that customers who have been cheated by fraudsters get their money refunded.

The minister on Monday held a meeting with the top brass of a number of nationalised and private banks and officials of Kolkata Police's Detective department, who have been involved in the probe of the ATM money siphoning case.

"The banks have told me that following instructions from the Centre, they are outsourcing a number of ATMs in the city. I had made it clear that they must have guards round-the-clock. Our department will start conducting surprise visits at the ATMs and if we find irregularities, we will take penal action as per the provisions of law," Pande said.

He will also write to the Union Finance minister, urging him to prod the banks to have round-the-clock manning of the ATMs. "After the decision of outsourcing, banks have been keeping a number of ATMs unmanned as cost-cutting measure, thereby jeopardising customers' security," Pande said.

The minister instructed the banks to set up a network of its ATMs with the police stations of their respective jurisdictional areas and suggested that the police stations should have a nodal officer dealing with the irregularities of ATMs. "If customers want, the banks have been advised to develop the infrastructure of limiting the amount of withdrawal of their money from ATMs. If somebody sets the limit to Rs 10,000, then if any fraudster accesses his/her details, he also cannot withdraw amounts in excess of Rs 10,000," the minister said.

The minister also brought up the lack of coordination among banks during the meeting. "We will be acting as a facilitator and banks will be meeting once in three months in my department to discuss about the problems of customers, exchange of technology and other aspects. This will increase coordination," he said.

A high level official from the Reserve Bank of India, who attended the meeting, said that they are working upon fresh guidelines for the banks to prevent such ATM frauds in future.