Congress leader Chennithala alleges data leak of one crore Keralites by CMO

Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala has accused Kerala’s Chief Minister’s Office of leaking personal details of over one crore people, including beneficiaries of the Stree Suraksha scheme, to a private agency for election-related purposes.

Kochi: Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala on Friday accused the Chief Minister’s Office of leaking to a private agency for election-related purposes the personal details of over one crore people in Kerala, including the lakhs of women registered under the Stree Suraksha scheme.

The latest allegation by the senior Congress leader comes two days after he claimed that personal details of government employees and pensioners, for sending messages about the state government’s achievements, were sought by the officer on special duty (OSD) in the CMO.

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On Friday, speaking to reporters here, Chennithala termed it a serious instance of “data theft” where personal details of the general public, including women under the Stree Suraksha scheme and government employees and officials, have been allegedly leaked to a private organisation “without taking any precautionary measures”.

“This has been done for election purposes,” he alleged.

He further contended that a letter was issued by the same OSD in the CMO on February 7 seeking personal details of the women under the scheme.

“Such a thing has never happened in the history of the state. It is a serious breach of data protection,” the Congress leader contended.

He further said that such details reaching the hands of the CM was tantamount to it being available to the CPI(M) as there is no difference between the government and the party.

Chennithala claimed that a private organisation, based in Mumbai, was reportedly given the personal details as the government was unable to handle such a huge amount of data.

“A comprehensive probe is required as leakage of such details could lead to cybercrimes. The government is creating a situation where cyber frauds could occur,” he claimed.

On Wednesday, Chennithala had termed the collection of personal details of government employees, officials and pensioners a “huge political controversy” and a “major breach of data privacy”.