Srinagar, Jul 08: Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo on Wednesday chaired the 37th Union Territory Level Coordination Committee (UTLCC) meeting convened by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Jammu, and called for a comprehensive, coordinated, and technology-driven strategy to curb the growing menace of cyber-enabled financial frauds and other unregulated financial activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
Emphasising the need for strengthening institutional capacities, the Chief Secretary urged regulatory bodies including SEBI, NSE, and ICAI to undertake large-scale capacity building programmes for prosecution and investigation officers to enhance their ability to effectively investigate and prosecute cyber-enabled financial crimes.
The UTLCC, constituted by the Ministry of Finance, serves as a statutory coordination forum to promote close cooperation among financial regulators and enforcement agencies, curb unauthorised deposit-taking and other unregulated financial activities, and facilitate timely sharing of market intelligence. During deliberations, the Chief Secretary underscored the importance of creating widespread financial awareness and enhancing institutional preparedness, urging SEBI and NSE to jointly undertake awareness and training programmes targeting nearly 50,000 participants, while asking ICAI to strengthen capacities of around 20,000 stakeholders including teachers, students, SHG members, community influencers, law enforcement personnel, and officers involved in prosecution.
Highlighting the need for stronger enforcement mechanisms, Dulloo called for formulation of a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in consultation with the Principal Secretary, Home Department, to create greater deterrence against financial offenders by clearly delineating responsibilities and ensuring seamless coordination. He also directed the Finance Department to expedite finalisation of the Chit Fund Rules to strengthen the regulatory framework.
Expressing concern over the rapid evolution of technology-driven financial crimes, he stressed the need to intensify efforts against emerging frauds, particularly crypto currency-related scams. He called for identifying masterminds behind phishing messages and fraudulent emails, and advocated stringent non-kinetic measures such as cancellation of driving licences, passports, and vehicle registration certificates, along with attachment of properties against those involved in cheating people.
Regional Director, RBI, Jammu, Chandra Shekhar Azad, made a detailed presentation on initiatives undertaken by RBI, including deployment of the Financial Fraud Risk Adapter tool, the AI-based Mule Hunter tool, mandatory adoption of the “bank.in” domain, standardisation of telephone numbers for promotional and customer awareness calls, tokenisation of card details, and customer-enabled options for disabling selected features of debit/credit cards.
He informed that RBI has organised more than 113 awareness programmes across districts and institutions, benefiting government employees, students, traders, business establishments, and the general public. Additional Chief Secretary Finance and Principal Secretary Home also shared suggestions, emphasising the need for introducing distinct call signatures and sustained public awareness campaigns on modus operandi adopted by cyber fraudsters.
