HYDERABAD: All India Congress Committee (AICC) spokesperson Sravan Dasoju has accused the TRS government of illegally collecting and integrating personal data of citizens of Telangana, through digital footprints, without their consent, in violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, the Data (Privacy & Protection) Act, 2017 and Information Technology Act, 2008 as well as the dictum of the Supreme Court.
Sravan submitted a memorandum in this regard to Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy in Delhi on Monday and the latter assured him that he would look into the issue. Sravan pointed out that a speech delivered by Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, IT Department, on the access to Digital Footprint of Citizens through Samagra Vedika Initiative at the National Conference on “Digital Accounting” held on July 5 by the Institute of Charted Accountants of India, at Hyderabad, claimed that the Telangana government has developed an algorithm which gathered citizens’ private data available with various departments of the State.
He said that it was evident that a huge amount of personal information of citizens seems to be in the government’s possession and that of the TRS party, posing a grave threat and danger to the citizens of Telangana. The speech of Jayesh Ranjan clearly reflects that the government has illegally indulged in secretive collection, integration and storage of data, more particularly, private and personal information of the citizens, without their permission or consent.
He alleged that the State government was creating a parallel Aadhaar of every citizen of the State without their consent. He pointed out that Telangana police had filed a case against TDP & IT Grids Company for colluding and misusing the data collected under an initiative called “Sevamitra” for their political purposes. “We fear that TRS will do a similar thing,” Sravan Dasoju alleged.