Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo on Tuesday called for a comprehensive, coordinated and technology-driven strategy to tackle the growing threat of cyber-enabled financial frauds and other unregulated financial activities in Jammu and Kashmir while chairing the 37th Union Territory Level Coordination Committee (UTLCC) meeting convened by the Reserve Bank of India in Srinagar.
Emphasising the need to strengthen institutional capacities, Dulloo urged regulatory bodies, including the Securities and Exchange Board of India, National Stock Exchange of India and Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, to organise large-scale capacity-building programmes for investigation and prosecution officers dealing with cyber-enabled financial crimes.
The Chief Secretary stressed the importance of financial awareness and institutional preparedness, directing SEBI and NSE to jointly conduct awareness and training programmes for nearly 50,000 participants, while ICAI was asked to strengthen the capacities of around 20,000 stakeholders, including teachers, students, Self Help Group members, community influencers, law enforcement personnel and prosecution officers.
To enhance enforcement, Dulloo called for the preparation of a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in consultation with the Home Department. He said a clearly defined SOP would improve coordination among departments, assign responsibilities and ensure swift action against financial fraudsters.
He also directed the Finance Department to expedite the finalisation of the Chit Fund Rules to strengthen the regulatory framework and curb unauthorised deposit-taking and fraudulent investment schemes.
Expressing concern over the increasing use of technology in financial crimes, the Chief Secretary highlighted the need to intensify action against cryptocurrency-related scams, phishing attacks and fraudulent emails. He advocated stringent legal measures against offenders, including cancellation of driving licences, passports and vehicle registration certificates, besides attachment of properties under applicable laws.
Earlier, RBI Regional Director Jammu, Chandra Shekhar Azad, presented various initiatives undertaken by the central bank to strengthen the country’s financial fraud prevention ecosystem.
He highlighted the deployment of the Financial Fraud Risk Adapter tool, the Artificial Intelligence-based Mule Hunter tool for detecting mule accounts, mandatory adoption of the “bank.in” domain by banks, standardised 1400 and 1600 series telephone numbers for official communication, card tokenisation and customer-controlled security features for banking services.
Azad informed the meeting that RBI has organised more than 113 financial literacy and awareness programmes across Jammu and Kashmir, benefiting government employees, students, traders, businesses and the general public.
Senior officers, including the Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, Principal Secretary, Home Department, senior police officials and representatives of RBI, SEBI and ICAI, also attended the meeting and stressed the need for sustained public awareness campaigns, stronger reporting mechanisms and enhanced safeguards against online financial frauds.
