Kabra chairs 30th UT Level Security Committee Meeting for J&K

Jammu: Principal Secretary Home Department, Shaleen Kabra today chaired the 30th Union Territory Level Security Committee (UTLSC) meeting for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

Kamal P. Patnaik, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh; Mukesh Singh, Inspector General of Police Jammu, senior officials of Reserve Bank, officials of various Govt Departments and commercial banks were present in the meeting to discuss issues related to movement of treasure and its security in the UT.

At the outset, Patnaik, Regional Director, RBI, gave brief overview of the meeting with regard to providing a platform to all the stakeholders to discuss the various security related issues involved in currency management.

He emphasized on the need for detection of fake currency notes which is a real threat to the economic development of the country. He requested that all agencies should make coordinated efforts and stay vigilant to curb the menace of fake currency.

Speaking on the occasion, Principal Secretary Home Department, Shaleen Kabra said there should be focus to take urgent measures to move towards digitalization or digital based cash transfer.

He mentioned that there is plethora of information available with RBI and there is need to transfer this information to general public for their awareness.

He informed that since last State Level Security Committee meeting, certain new agencies have been established to tackle the crimes related to cybercrimes and online frauds.

With regards to enhancing availability of security officials for guarding the movement of treasure, he informed the forum that the Government is in the process of issuing licenses under the updated Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act, 2005 which may allow security agencies to have better security personnel.

He also mentioned that fire audits of pending currency chests should be completed in a time bound manner.

He also stressed on issues related to thefts at ATMs and stressed upon the urgent need to upgrade ATM e-surveillance mechanism. He also advised banks to have sound internal security mechanism with real time detection and reporting of malfunctioning of electronic gadgets installed at bank branches and ATMs in addition to the other security arrangements.

Mukesh Singh, IGP, Jammu also highlighted that high cash in circulation needs to be researched and specific action plan is required to be prepared at par with that of other states in the country. With regards to App based payments frauds, he informed that there is a need to deliberate on this issue with legal experts and proper training programmes are required to be conducted for the police officers.

Mahendra Singh Rawat, Chief Security Officer, RBI Jammu and Shekhar Chaudhary, DGM, RBI also spoke on the occasion.