Financial frauds in focus | Chief Secretary lays stress on creating literacy among public about financial defrauds

Srinagar, Feb 23: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo today chaired the 34th meeting of the Union Territory Level Coordination Committee (UTLCC) convened by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to discuss issues related to unauthorised deposits, fraudulent activities of unregulated entities and the sharing of Market Intelligence among stakeholders.

During the meeting, Chief Secretary impressed upon the bank authorities to create ample awareness among public about the possible ways of financial defraud. He advised them to regularly issue do's and Don’ts for the public to abide by. He even called for holding outreach programs among students and SHG members so that each household here gets acquainted with how to safeguard themselves from getting duped by these fraudsters.

During this meeting, Dulloo also reviewed action points including the conduct of police sensitization programs, activities for public awareness generation, and progress made in pending fraud cases of unauthorized deposits and digital lending.

He called for more effective action on these fronts to safeguard public money and called for wider usage of the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes (BUDS) Act, 2019.

On the occasion, the GM, RBI, Neeraj Kumar threw light on various steps that can be taken to tackle the rise of fraudulent activities in online sphere and called for a collaborative approach among all stakeholders to mitigate such frauds.

Recent developments in frauds related to unauthorised deposits and lending apps reported in Jammu and Kashmir were also discussed in the meeting.

The meeting was attended by senior officials of J&K government and police department including Special DG Crime, A.K Choudhary; Principal Secretary, Home and Finance Departments, Santosh D Vaidya; ADGP,CID, Nitish Kumar; Secretary, Revenue, Prasanna Ramaswamy G; Secretary, Law, Achal Sethi, Registrar of Societies, Arun Kumar Manhas; Joint Director, Information, Vevaik Puri, Registrar of Companies, Jammu, Haamid Bukhari, and Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Rakesh Dubey.

Officials of RBI and SEBI also attended the meeting either in person or through video conferencing.