The Shopian and Phulwama districts of South Kashmir are going under arduous conditions as the cash transactions in 40 branches of the area have been stopped. This massive step has been taken after taking the advice rolled out by the security agencies. The security agencies asked the banks to stop the cash transactions and delieveries of the hard money to branches of the banks.
The bank branches which belong to Jammu and Kashmir Bank and Ellaquai Dehati Bank. These were the recently targeted branches by the militants. A senior official mentioned that all the other banking operations like ATM will keep on working. He also mentioned, “We were told that the security agencies have inputs about more such attacks, so we had to stop cash transactions at these branches designated by the security agencies as sensitive”.
People can do the cash transactions in other areas which have the branches.
As mentioned by the authorities, this is just a one time move to ensure the security and safety of the bank employees and other assets. He further added, “We have discussed various measures for the safety and security of our employees as well as the cash… We are putting those measures in place in the coming few days and once they are in place, cash transactions at these bank branches will be resumed”.
An incident of May 1st startled the authorities when militants attacked a van and shot five of the policemen. Post this, a special committee meeting was organised and the issue was discussed. State Finance Minister, Haseeb Drabu said, “Surveillance is good but it cannot substitute physical security on ground”.
The meeting was held to revisit the standard operating procedures for elevating the physical security measures.
A lot has been revised and imporved after the meeting and the state is taking every step after thorough study and careful thoughts.
