Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 5: As a special State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) discussed security scenario in the backdrop of recent bank robberies, Minister for Finance, Labour and Employment Dr Haseeb A Drabu said that surveillance is good but it cannot substitute physical security on ground.
“We need to devise special security measures to deal with the kind of situations we face,” he said while presiding over SLBC meeting, here today at SKICC, to discuss the security scenario in the backdrop of recent increase in the burglary attempts on banks’ assets.
The house unanimously called for revisiting the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for augmenting and upgrading the physical security as well as ensuring safety of public life and property.
During the meeting, a resolution was unanimously passed wherein the house expressed deep shock and outrage over the killing of five cops and two security guards by the unidentified gunmen while guarding the J&K Bank Cash-Van on Monday in Kulgam.
The house conveyed unequivocal solidarity and sympathies for the bereaved families.
The high-profile meeting was attended by the Chief Secretary B B Vyas, Principal Secretary (Home) R K Goel, DG Police Dr S P Vaid, Divisional Commissioner Baseer Ahmad Khan, J&K Bank Chairman & CEO, Parvez Ahmed, I G Police Javed Mujtaba Gilani, DIG (South) S P Pani, Regional Director RBI N K Sahu, CGM NABARD Vijay Kumar, Chairman JK Grameen Bank, Chairman EDB, DGM State Bank of India, DGM Punjab National Bank, State Head HDFC, MD Anantnag Central Cooperative Bank and MD Baramulla Central Cooperative Bank. Placing on the record, the house recorded that banks have been braving all the odds to remain committed to the sacred mission of financial empowerment of the people here. However, people also need to understand the basic fact that assets of banks are basically public property and the banks are only the custodians of this great trust people repose in them as an institution.
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