Ludhiana: After a robbery bid at the Dugri Road branch of Muthoot Finance, the Ludhiana police have issued orders for gold loan companies with mandatory guidelines for compliance to avert such incidents. These guidelines have been formed after discussion with such finance companies, checking guidelines of the RBI and suggestions from city residents.
Commissioner of police Rakesh Agarwal said that some suggestions given by residents have also been included in the guidelines. The police have made it mandatory for all gold loan companies and other financial institutions to install night vision CCTVs cameras to cover the road in front of the branch, all entry and exit points, reception desk and other vital points inside the branch with storage of up to 30 days with power backup. Further, the management shall be responsible to install the DVR/NVR and UPS in a place not easily identifiable by visitors to prevent any damage to the same by miscreants. There must be a provision of remote recording and storage of footage, maybe at a regional office or headquarter of company, for any eventuality.
Further, the management must install and ensure smooth functioning of burglar alarms in the branches. The burglary alarm should be operated separately by branch manager, cashier and any other official of the branch from their seats. Further, the alarm should be linked to their respective head offices. The latter must in turn have an effective and prompt communication system, wherein call messages can be immediately dispatched to the police control room.
A BSNL landline phone with an auto dialler should be installed in the branch. As soon as the alarm goes off, a teleprompter should automatically inform the police control room regarding the suspicious activity in the branch in a pre-recorded message. The alarm should be audible to neighbouring areas up to 100m so that any police patrol in the vicinity could immediately respond and the civilians in the neighbourhood could be cautioned.
The CP said, “Valuables like gold and huge amounts of cash must be placed in a separate vault/locked room/strong room. There must be a system of delayed lockers that open after a delay of 20-25 minutes post OTP-based authentication. The locking system must be linked to a power backup system so that the security can be ascertained 24x7 and power failure doesn’t lead to any laxity in security. A strong room should necessarily have an OTP-based authentication before opening. Strong room should not be opened when the visitors are inside the hall.”
Further, the management shall be responsible for deploying armed guards at the entrance of all branches. The security staff must be deployed after proper antecedents check through police verification. Name and phone numbers of all visitors must be entered in a register before allowing them entry.
The management shall provide separate undertakings regarding compliance in this regard to the office of deputy commissioner of police, joint commissioner of police and police station concerned within one month.