Srinagar, July 8: Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo on Tuesday called for a coordinated, technology-driven strategy to tackle the growing menace of cyber-enabled financial frauds and 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 (RBI), Jammu.
Emphasising stronger institutional preparedness, the Chief Secretary urged regulatory bodies, including SEBI, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), to organise large-scale capacity-building programmes for investigation and prosecution officers to enhance their ability to deal with cyber financial crimes.
The UTLCC, constituted by the Union Ministry of Finance, serves as a coordination platform for financial regulators and enforcement agencies to curb unauthorised deposit-taking, fraudulent investment schemes and other unregulated financial activities.
The meeting was attended by the Additional Chief Secretary, Finance; Regional Director, RBI Jammu; Principal Secretary, Home Department; Inspector General of Police (Crime); Commissioner Secretary, Law; Registrar, Cooperative Societies; representatives of SEBI, RBI, ICAI and other senior officers.
Dulloo stressed the need for widespread financial literacy and directed SEBI and NSE to jointly conduct awareness programmes for around 50,000 participants. He also asked ICAI to train nearly 20,000 stakeholders, including students, teachers, SHG members, law enforcement personnel and prosecution officers.
Calling for stronger enforcement, the Chief Secretary directed the Home Department to prepare a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to ensure better coordination among departments and swift action against financial offenders.
He also asked the Finance Department to expedite the finalisation of Chit Fund Rules to strengthen the regulatory framework and curb fraudulent investment schemes.
Expressing concern over the rise in cryptocurrency-related frauds and sophisticated cyber scams, Dulloo called for identifying the masterminds behind phishing messages and fraudulent emails. He also advocated stringent legal measures, including attachment of properties and cancellation of driving licences, passports and vehicle registration certificates of offenders, wherever legally permissible.
Earlier, RBI Regional Director Chandra Shekhar Azad highlighted several initiatives introduced by the central bank to strengthen the financial fraud prevention ecosystem. These include the Financial Fraud Risk Adapter, the AI-based Mule Hunter tool for detecting mule accounts, mandatory adoption of the "bank.in" domain, standardised banking helpline numbers, card tokenisation and enhanced customer security features for digital banking.
He informed the meeting that RBI has organised over 113 financial literacy and awareness programmes across Jammu and Kashmir, benefiting government employees, students, traders, business establishments and the general public.
The Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, and Principal Secretary, Home also suggested strengthening public awareness campaigns and introducing distinct call signatures for verified entities to help citizens identify genuine communications and protect themselves from online financial fraud.
