 Online edition of India's National Newspaper Saturday, May 07, 2011 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version |
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Tamil Nadu
Security guards are given only a lathi which does not deter burglars, writes P. Sudhakar Two watchmen of a private engineering college near Nagercoil were recently killed brutally when they tried to stop the burglars from looting an automated teller machine (ATM) installed near the entrance of the college. The assailants, after crushing watchman Sudalaimuthu's head with a boulder, threw the body of another watchman Paulpandi into the nearby irrigation channel after their failed attempt. Following this gruesome incident, Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Tirunelveli Range K.P. Shanmugarajeshwaran has instructed the policemen under his jurisdiction to ensure increased vigil at the ATMs, bringing some relief to the watchmen. With the images captured by the cameras installed in the ATM centre, the police are now working overtime to crack the case. Though all commercial banks have established their ATM centres across the district to ensure the hassle-free withdrawal of money round-the-clock as per the convenience of the customers, the all-important job of safeguarding these cash distribution points have been outsourced to private agencies, which deploy their poorly-armed men there making the ATMs vulnerable. Unfortunately, the ATMs, carrying a few lakhs of rupees in its belly at any given point of time, are being guarded by security guards armed with only a 3-feet-long stick. The twin murder has become an eye-opener for both the security agencies as well as its workforce, who have started demanding permission to carry weapons as they are on duty. “The banks, which install cameras at the ATMs to capture the images of everyone entering the cash points, are not worried about prevention of crimes like attempts to burgle the cash in the ATMs. We may be allowed to carry some weapons for self-defence as well as to protect the ATMs from being burgled by armed anti-socials,” said the watchman deployed at a nationalised bank's ATM centre on Thiruvananthapuram High Road, Palayamkottai. A meeting involving the police, bankers and the private security agencies is likely to be conducted here shortly to discuss this serious issue and draw strategies on keeping the burglars targeting the ATMs at bay.
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