The Left Front today urged the state administration to come up with a guideline to combat the rising incidents of bank/ATM frauds in the state while the Trinamul Congress condemned the Centre for its failure to check such incidents. Leader of the Left Front Legislative Party in the state Assembly, Sujan Chakraborty, today sought the attention of the House to the manner in which bank fraud incidents were spreading across the state.

Mr Chakraborty said that earlier 30 such incidents were reported from Jadavpur but lately similar incidents are being reported from other parts of the state. “Banks have become unsafe and it is a very serious issue as public money is concerned. Its thus important to question as to whether linking Aadhar Card with bank accounts was a correct decision.

Is not the privacy of the people getting hampered through the linking with Aadhar? The state administration should think about ways to combat the situation and publish a guideline in this connection,” said Mr Chakraborty in the Assembly. Responding to Mr Chakraborty, mayor and state urban development minister Firad Hakim blamed the Centre for the failure of the Central agencies to prevent such incidents.

“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had strongly protested against the Centre’s decision of Aadhar linking. Who has the Centre safeguarded through this linking move?” he asked. “Incidents of bank fraud arise due to the failure of Central agencies. The Ministry of Home Affairs is busy engaging its agencies in troubling the Opposition parties instead of making the system foolproof. The situation is such that people can neither keep their money at home due to notebandhi nor in the banks as they are unsafe.

Both the Centre and the MHA should take the responsibility for incidents of bank frauds,” Mr Hakim later told media persons. It may be mentioned here that police have received around 50 complaints of people losing money from their bank accounts through fraudulent means over the past few days despite having their debit cards still in their possession.

An expert in the banking sector said: “As every bank account is verified and linked with Aadhaar, if anyone fraudulently withdraws money from your account, through Aadhaar such fraudster can easily be located and punished. Therefore, by linking your bank accounts with Aadhaar, your accounts become more secure.”