Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): Kerala Police's plan to check the Call Detail Records (CDR) of COVID patients in the state in order to help in contact tracing is clearly a breach of privacy, said Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala on Thursday.
Speaking up against the plan, Chennithala said it is a violation of Constitutional rights of individuals, and asked the government to refrain from it.
With the steady spike in the number of positive cases in Kerala, the government is finding it difficult to trace the contacts of COVID-positive patients. In such a situation, the police department was entrusted to check the CDR of the COVID-19 patients and trace their contacts.
The Police would collect the CDR of those who had spoken with the COVID-19 patients and also check their mobile tower location. Assistant Director General of Police (ADGP) TK Vinod Kumar, Intelligence wing, has given a letter in writing, seeking all the mobile service providers to hand over the CDR information and the tower location details to the police.
Earlier, the Health Department used to collect the CDR of the COVID-19 patients, who were very critical and whose contacts could not be traced by any other means.
However, with the number of those contracting COVID-19 in the state going well above 1,000 every day, preparing the list of primary and secondary contacts of new cases has become extremely challenging. It was at this point that the police decided to go ahead and check the CDR to trace contacts of the fresh COVID positive cases. The Government aims at enabling the police to decide on and demarcate containment zones based on the CDR details that they procure.
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However, there were allegations from the Opposition that permitting the police to collect the CDR of the patients would be an infringement of the privacy of those individuals.
The Chief Minister of Kerala maintained that this would continue as it is the only effective way to trace contacts quickly and effectively in such a crisis situation. The CM's statement that the CDR collection has been on for the past few months, drew further flak.
Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala lashed out at the Chief Minister for entrusting the Director General of Police (DGP) of the State Police and giving him the power to check the CDR of COVID patients. He asked how the CM could direct the DGP to violate a constitutional right.
Chennithala said it is a blatant violation of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. It also violates the Indian Telegraph law and the Supreme Court verdict. He alleged that the government sees COVID-19 patients as enemies.
"How can a DGP who is responsible for the law and order in the state, issue such an order which is against the privacy of individuals?" asked the Opposition leader. Speaking to the media, he also asked the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary to the Government to clarify if they knew about the matter.
