Phone tapping: Govt moots stringent laws

Bhaskar Hazarika

NEW DELHI: The central government has mooted stringent laws for preventing illegal phone tapping.

This follows the controversy over the tapping of Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh's phone.

Officials from the Prime Minister's office, in a meeting with the top brass of major telecom companies, have come up with a foolproof mechanism to prevent illegal tapping of telephones.

“According to the guidelines, phone tapping can only be ordered by a designated government official. The order should be issued after discussion with senior officials,” an official from the Department of Telecom told CyberMedia News.

He said that the procedure for issuing such order would be 'foolproof'.

Speaking on the recent case of phone tapping, he said that it would not be possible for any telecom company executive to carry out the directive as it would be carried out through strict-verification by a panel of senior government officials. However, the official refused to reveal the constitution of the panel.

Early this week, Union Home Secretary Vinod Kumar Duggal had convened a meeting with chief executives of all the major telecom companies to discuss a foolproof mechanism to prevent illegal tapping.