Incredible India!
Incredible Indian people who run this country - they just morph into nincompoops when thinking about the country's progress.
Today IBA and RBI have come up with a fantastically BS proposition to close ATMs at night and I can't help but laugh at their (lack of) wisdom, intelligence, whatever it is you have between your ears.
What a great idea sirjee... identify low traffic ATMs and close them at night! It is surprising that on the one hand these guys are talking about private ATMs across the country and that every rural branch must have an ATM, and on the other hand this.
(With due apologies) Besides it is also a reflection of the trust in the police department - which seems to be touching rock bottom. Or, the trust the police department has in itself - which seems to be even lower!
First they said - place a guard at every ATM which meant employ and deploy 5000 people from where-ever within 2 weeks in Bangalore - from where? Which factory will provide so many human beings on order.
We excel at jerking our knees and there is no better evidence than this - deploy overnight, close ATMs, open ATMs.... blah blah and double blah.
Is closing ATMs a solution - it is just IBA/RBI/Cops running away from the problem. No intelligent statement has come from these institutions to tackle the problem except jerking their knee. This is so typical - make a statement which sounds so high and mighty that everyone will be appeased, and nothing will be sorted out.
So who will close 5000 ATMs at night? Will one doddering guy go to all these ATMs and down the shutters. Won't you have to hire people to do this! Or will you install a central system which will do this at the flick of a button!
Dear IBA/RBI/Police - what are you thinking? Do you really think that the untrained, illiterate villagers who are given black and blue uniforms and seated at ATMs are capable of thwarting a robbery! Hah ! and Bah!!
Sorry - take a Babaji Ka Thullu for that thought!!
I agree that hiring thousands of guards will blow a hole in the budget and (anyway) it is a short term solution. ATM count will keep increasing and the quality of guards will keep going down. Why cant IBA/RBI/Cops advise to work with the security agencies to create a rapid reaction force, install intruder alarms, upgrade the CCTV and make it good for the next five years.
Close the ATMs today, hire your non-guards next and still suffer from the same disease and keep floundering all your blooming life.
Closing your eyes to the problem will not resolve it! This is NOT risk / threat remediation it is containment.
Response from Nandkumar On another occasion, I had heard of a mind-boggling suggestion that ATMs be clustered in a centralised location in a town so that tight security can be provided!
Banks also need to do away the 'lounge-like' appearance of ATMs and make them 'box-in-the-wall' thingies, so that all transactions happen in the open with the real world precautions and protections for cash transactions.
Of course this is typical knee jerk reaction - you do not understand something - close it. Why bother finding a solution and making life easier for the customer. We are a bank, a big bank, customer will come to us and all we have to do is keep our flag flying high and showing how nice we are!
This is India my friend, if you are a customer and your money is with me - you are a "keeda" (insect).