ATM Protection

With the recent attack on a female customer of a bank, lot of noise is being made about lack of security at the ATM's. No amount of security can actually prevent these attacks with each mode having it's own lacunae.

While it might be impossible to bring in a total fool proof system for protecting the customers using the ATM, i have few thoughts which might help deter the potential attackers.

Shutter Lock system: A simple method is to create a mechanism to lock the shutter when it is open so that it cannot be pulled down the way it was done by the attacker in the recent incident at Bangalore. A slightly advanced method could be as follows.

Each shutter would be fixed with anti pull down mechanism either on one side or on both sides of the shutter. These would be something like number locks, which will lock or unlock only with authorised persons pressing the required combination to either lock or unlock. Authorised person are Bank Employee, Cash handling company or security company supervisor. Only these people will be given the password either to lock or unlock. A internal system of changing the combination periodically once in 15/30 days can be devised.

This devise is fitted in such a way that a retractable obstacle would open once the device is locked and this device would be placed at a height where the shutter could comfortably be stopped without creating obstacle for movement of people to-fro to the ATM. Either one or two units on either side of the shutter can be positioned. This locking device could have a inbuilt Alarm mechanism. In the event any forceful attempts are being made (more than 3 times) this device will trigger a Siren which can start belching and further additions can be considered like sending an alert to the nearest Police station with a GSM chip inserted in it.

This is being suggested with an assumption that no bank would like to pull down its ATM shutters and would like to function 24/7. In the event they need to fill cash carryout maintenance etc then the authorised person have the password to use the same to pull the shutter half drawn.

Panic Button: One could consider placing a panic button at a height of about 5 feet (to prevent children from fooling around) somewhere in the ATM room or to the machine itself. In case of an attack the person under attack can press the button which will set out a 'Siren' and or a alert to the nearest Police station. Location of the Panic button can be highlighted with a board clearly mentioning the purpose.

Location of the ATM: It is important that all ATM's should be in such places where there is proper lighting, crowd movement. They should not be permitted to be opened in bi lanes just to ensure visibility and access. Any higher rent paid by the bank for locating the ATM on a main road can be recovered in terms of advertisement mileage they get with their bill board.

Either the locking system or the Panic button may not cost more than one month wages of a security person.

Lets hope something in these lines will be done. If there are better methods, then they should be initiated and implemented.

Corruption & Common man

Oxford Dictionary defines corruption as a 'dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery', and Bribe is defined as 'dishonestly persuade (someone) to act in one’s favour by a gift of money or other inducement' .

We are all proud common men who will berate the politicians about the corruption and take potshots at them through social media and other means. However, how much are we to blame, is our hand clean in this regard. There are few instances of corruption we all indulge in,

• Not insist on a bill, if the store keeper tells we save on tax
• Jump the queue to either to get a ticket or food
• Be silent on subsidies we enjoy, though we don't deserve them (free TV, ration sugar, LPG/Kerosene.... list goes on)
• Buy something without verifying the claims, because we get a discount/free gift 'only for the day kind' (Campa Cola Campus in Mumbai is a fit case)

These are something which we the common man indulge in our own lives everyday and still say these are trivial matters when it comes to large scale corruption by our politicos n babus. But is this not the same trend that they are following albeit in a larger scale.

Primarily it looks like corruption is part of our DNA, just like violating the rules is part of our DNA. How can we expect our next generation not to indulge in corrupt practices when, they see corruption within ourselves.

While politicians and Babu's take the cake in terms of corruption, just because they are in a position to influence policy, today no body seems to be exempt from the corrupt practices. One of the noblest professions, medical practices is the worst in terms of corrupt practices. Today doctors get commissions on tests that they prescribe, referrals they make to bigger hospitals, free trips on medicines they prescribe in the guise of medical conferences. All these in addition to various gifts that are handed over by the sales reps, when they come to meet the doctor to introduce/remind about their products.

The so called fourth estate, Media accepts gifts during press briefings, accepts envelops filled with cash from corrupt officers, advertisements in lieu of not exposing corporates, is this not corruption? What moral authority they can exercise to question other people indulging in corruption.

Now it comes to us,

• when we build renovate our homes, many a time we do not even submit a plan for approval, even if we do, we don't follow it and deviate to the extent it is convenient to us. We place our building material on the road (inconveniencing the others), pay bribes to the officers who call on us to stop the irregularities so that they can have a nelson eye on our deviations. How much are we contributing to the corruption of the system, if there is a danger of demolition, we run to the politician who can influence the officer, and in turn are forced to keep quiet when the politician indulges in a bigger corrupt practice.
• When a cop catches us for traffic violation we prefer to induce him to take a bribe rather than pay the penalty and come on record.
• We are ready to pay bribes left right n centre to get our work done, be it a driving licence, ration card or anything for that matter. We also say we are forced to do this because we are left with no choices.

The system is so bad, we see corruption spreading to the lowest levels, a voter has no qualms of taking money, liquor, gifts etc to vote for a particular candidate, today they are taking from all candidates and splitting the votes of the family to all those who have paid (this much honesty is still there), A parking centre assistant is willing to take cash in lieu of a receipt, A railway TT will allow you to travel A/C class on a ordinary ticket if you share the fare difference with him, A banquet manager will give less number of plates count to his management, for the party you host, if you take care of him. This list can go on and on.

Government has no qualms of black marketing in the name of 'Tatkal' by creating a shortage and asking us to pay extra for early delivery. Look at the case of Telephones at one point of time we were paying Rs.16000 for a telephone connection officially to the government because connections were hard to get, today with plenty of availability the telecom companies come to us luring with offers. Same thing with Maruthi cars, today after liberalisation and plenty of models to chose from, we do not have to pay 'Tatkal' money to get a car. However this black-marketing is still on with railways, wonder when will that ever get removed. This i believe is as good as speed money/Bribe since we are paying extra money to get a out of turn benefit.

With corruption all around us and we being active apart of it, what is the solution.

1. Bring in transparency in all government activity
2. All allotments, plan approvals, decision making should be made available in a transparent manner to all, by putting it up on the internet.
3. No out of the line allotments irrespective of influence, even we the people should desist from asking and be prepared to wait.
4. Direct remittance of subsidy to the beneficiary bank account rather than doles, as it is today
5. APMC yards should put up prices on the net, reach out to farmers by SMS about the prices, so that the middle men do not take the farmers for a ride.
6. Every govt office to have a citizen's charter detailing how many days for each work
7. All bureaucrats who are involved in decision making be the first to be made accountable when there is a fraud detected.
8. All corporates indulging in corruption by offering bribes should be barred from selling/offering their products/services in the market for a period of 6 years
9. If a Judicial officer is caught for corruption, death penalty straight away on conviction, irrespective of the quantum of the misdeed.
10. Any politician convicted on corruption/ Disproportionate assets charges, should be barred from contest for any election/post along with his/her family members for a lifetime.

One might say, is this all possible, may be could be, first lets change to ask for the change

Whose bus is this anyway?

Thanks to the increasing popularity and convenience of booking tickets online, we notice more number of people preferring to buy tickets in private buses than state road transport buses.

Options on private buses are many in terms of comfort, compared to the state run buses, except for some innovative transport corporations like KSRTC (Karnataka). They pick you at many points, they drop you at many points and staff are generally courteous except during holiday season.

First question that comes to the mind is why these buses are not treated like regular stage carriages and brought under the rules of stage carriages, so that the passenger safety is given a bigger seat. In the light of Hyderabad - Shirdi bus accident and the recent Bangalore- Hyderabad bus inferno issue, we notice that RTA authorities carrying out major checks and even media going about calling the operators as 'Transport Mafia'. These acts do not give solace to the dead peoples families nor prevent future accidents.

When the tickets are sold online clearly stating that the bus is a stage carriage, then what prevents the RTA to treat them accordingly.

Few points that could be considered for action:

1. Providing space for private bus operators to operate their buses in a regulated manner, instead of these buses starting from where ever they wish. Many a country private n public transport shares the same bus stands.
2. Ticket pricing needs to be monitored particularly during the festive rush when the operators fleece people. In the recent times in AP, when RTC employees went on strike seeking to keep the state united, the private operators had a field day, jacking up the fares.
3. Delivery of promised comfort: passengers are sold tickets but provided with alternate accommodation or less than what has been promised and refunds are arbitrary too.
4. All transport corporations both private and public should be asked to submit a passenger manifest to the RTA online and any tickets that are issued to passengers post departure from the main place should be issued through handheld machines which should be GPS connected to ensure info is shared with the operator and the RTA. This would help to have a track on the actual number of passengers on board, to remove any uncertainties. (There was a speculation on how many passengers were actually traveling in the ill fated Jabbar travels bus, which got burnt on the eve of Diwali)
5. Once these buses come under stage carriage act, they could be regulated in terms of number per route, timing of departure, pricing of tickets etc

In the recent instance of Bus inferno the owner of the bus says he has leased the bus to another operator just after 5 days of purchase (???), hence he is not liable, till date no statement has come from the operator who organised the trip. But lives were lost and nothing can give solace to the families of those who perished in this inferno.

What is most significant is more than 100 buses were seized after the incident in AP alone, no details of what violations these buses were seized for, what happened to these buses after that. Probably we need to make an RTI application to elicit the info. Why the info cannot be posted on the web as to why a bus has been seized and on what circumstances it has been released.

It may be true, we the passengers do not show enough interest to know, whether the bus in which we are traveling does have a permit and is actually allowed to ferry us across to our respective destinations. A simple information board should be displayed in every bus in the form of a sticker pasted on one corner of the windshield, which will tell us, what kind of permit, who is the owner of the bus (even taxis are asked to carry the details on the body of the car), contact nos, Route on which the bus is allowed to ferry passengers. No of passengers the bus is allowed to carry.

Obviously nothing of this sort would be done since there is enough moola to be made by everyone in the game. Bus Registration nos are rented (multiple buses will operate with the same registration number, probably in different routes, one permit/tax for multiple routes), Luggage is carried in violation of the passenger carriage rules, Capacity violations, speed violations etc.

So MVI to Road Transport Commissioner, of course the Minister will all be the beneficiaries in this ring and no state probably would be an exception. When the entire system is in the ring, why should they spoil it for themselves.

Except for some noise made by the union leaders of the transport corporations (who in turn are silenced by sharing the spoils) no concrete effort is made to stop the menace, since the fourth estate too is now a days as corrupt as the other three estates, we the people get nothing but couple of days of noise till the next accident.