New Delhi: Unauthorised tapping of telephones will soon be a matter of past as the government has decided to operationalise a "foolproof" Central Monitoring System (CMS) which will put an end to all illegal interception. The CMS, which enables security agencies to monitor phones and internet communications of suspected persons, will ensure that monitoring of phone calls, text messages and internet use of citizens will be done only by government agencies after taking due permission from designated authority.
"We will soon operationalise the CMS. It will be a fool-proof monitoring system," Union Home Secretary RK Singh told reporters. The CMS will put an end to the involvement of telephone operators in phone tapping and if any agency wishes to monitor any particular number will have to keep all record online -- taking permission, duration of monitoring, what did they found and the persons involved in the whole process -- so that the person concerned could be brought to task if there is any irregularity.
The Home Secretary will soon chair a review meeting on the CMS and its operationalisation along with all stakeholders - the Ministry of Telecom and Department of Information Technology. The government has been maintaining that it is setting up CMS to safeguard citizen's privacy from mobile operators and protects national security.
Phone-tapping powers are restricted only to nine agencies in the country, including CBI and the Income Tax department. The government is, however, planning to give market regulator SEBI the powers to get
05:55 PM, Jun 17, 2013
Mumbai: Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) said one of the two vessels of the financially distressed Pratibha Shipping is drifting towards the city coast and an emergency towing vessel (ETV) has been requisitioned to take care of any situation. Without giving out specifics of locations, DGS said Pratibha Tapi, one of the two vessels, is dragging anchor at a "very slow rate" while Pratibha Indrayani, the second one, is "is...
11:50 PM, Jun 16, 2013
Shimla: The Himachal Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau is expected to submit its report On Saturday in the phone tapping case during the previous BJP government. "The probe has been completed and final report is being prepared for submitting it to the government," highly placed sources said. Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau was entrusted the probe in March and related documents which included the list of the telephone numbers retrieved by the...
01:36 AM, Jun 15, 2013
Mumbai: Many independent women suffer physical and emotional abuse in a relationship and actress-filmmaker Pooja Bhatt says there is no simple answer to it, but your silence the first time sets the tone and tenor for your relationship, while Gul Panag feels they tolerate abuse because of emotional vulnerability. Here is what Bollywood women have to say on the issue: Pooja Bhatt: There is no simple answer to such a...
06:20 PM, Jun 14, 2013
London: Sri Lanka's batting coach, Marvan Atapattu, has backed the team to make the ICC Champions Trophy semi-finals with victories in their remaining matches against hosts England and Australia. Sri Lanka narrowly lost to New Zealand in Cardiff on Sunday in a low-scoring match to leave Angelo Mathews' team needing to win at The Oval on Thursday and next Monday, but Atapattu was confident they could cast aside their poor...
04:06 PM, Jun 12, 2013
Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party is a party with differences, the Nationalist Congress Party said in Mumbai on Monday, reacting to LK Advani's resignation from the BJP Parliamentary Board, Election Committee and National Executive. "The party with a difference is indeed a party with differences as is evident from Advani's resignation," Maharashtra NCP spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said. "The fate of NDA is sealed as BJP suffers 'NaMonia'. The UPA will...
02:24 PM, Jun 10, 2013
US President Barack Obama defends the internet snooping programme saying they are keeping a tab on websites like Google and Facebook to identify those with terrorist links. ...
08:11 AM, Jun 08, 2013
Washington: Information collected through a US government surveillance program that taps into the servers of internet companies targets only non-US persons living outside the United States, a senior administration official said on Thursday. The US law that allows the collection of data under this program does not allow the targeting of any US citizen or of any person located in the United States, the official said, speaking on condition of...
12:18 AM, Jun 08, 2013
Washington: The government knows who you're calling. Every day. Every call. Here's what you need to know about the secret program and how it works: Q: What happened and why is it a big deal? A: The Guardian newspaper published a highly classified April US court order that allows the government access to all of Verizon's phone records on a daily basis, for both domestic and international calls. That doesn't...
07:58 AM, Jun 07, 2013
San Francisco/New York: The US National Security Agency is collecting telephone records of millions of Verizon Communications customers, according to a secret court order obtained and published by the Guardian newspaper's website. The order marked "Top Secret" and issued by the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court directs Verizon's Business Network Services Inc and Verizon Business Services units to hand over electronic data including all calling records on an "ongoing, daily...
07:44 AM, Jun 07, 2013
Chandigarh: Punjab Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa on Friday demanded the sacking of Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka in the wake of alleged purchase of books and other study material at exorbitant prices. Bajwa said in a statement in Chandigarh on Friday that the book scam in Education Department had "exposed the arrogance and moral bankruptcy of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal who is not ready to act against Maluka."...
04:06 AM, Jun 01, 2013
New Delhi: A court in New Delhi on Friday granted bail to a Delhi Police constable and a private detective, arrested for allegedly buying a SIM card on fake proofs to procure the call detail records of BJP leader Arun Jaitley and others. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Sanjay Bansal enlarged constable Arvind Dabas, 35, and detective Neeraj Nayar, 36, on bail on the ground that they have already got the...
06:50 PM, May 31, 2013
New Delhi: All four accused in the Arun Jaitley call detail records case were granted bail by a Delhi court on Thursday. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Amit Bansal granted bail to Delhi Police constable Arvind Dabas, 35, and three private detectives, Anurag Singh, 37, Neeraj Nayar, 36, and Nitish Singh, 30, on a personal bond of Rs one lakh each and two sureties each of the like amount. The court enlarged...
04:39 PM, May 30, 2013
New Delhi: National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday issued notice to the Kerala government over alleged deaths of several infants due to malnutrition in Attappadi area of the state. The rights panel has given six weeks time to the state government to submit a report in this regard. According to an NHRC statement, the commission has issued a notice to Chief Secretary, Kerala after taking suo motu cognisance of...
08:59 PM, May 28, 2013
New Delhi: As demands for N Srinivasan's resignation as BCCI President continued, three important members of the cricket board on Monday parried questions on the issue even as the beleaguered chief complained that the media was hounding him. BJP MP and former cricketer Kirti Azad made an oblique criticism of IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla and his party leader Arun Jaitley, both important office-bearers of BCCI, as to why they were...
07:27 PM, May 27, 2013
Anantapur: Through the summer, CNN-IBN has focused on the rising water shortage across several states. Among the worst hit is Andhra Pradesh's Rayalaseema region. With acres of dry land, withered crops and farmers with little hope, drought is now chronic in Andhra Pradesh's Rayalaseema region. Falling ground water levels and three poor monsoons in a row have destroyed livelihoods there. Lack of fodder and water hurts the cattle farmers as...
10:22 AM, May 27, 2013
Attapadi: 22 infant deaths in four months due to poor nutrition and inadequate healthcare has left the tribal belt of Attapadi in Kerala devastated. The tribal belt of Attapadi in Kerala has never had it so bad. "I was only eight months pregnant. The delivery was unexpected and at night we did not have a vehicle to go to the hospital too," said Selvi, who just her twin children at...
08:04 AM, May 24, 2013
Panaji: The Goa Medical College (GMC), the state's top health facility, regularly faces water shortage because people steal taps installed in the hospital premises, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Tuesday. The water shortage is putting patients and their kin to hardships, especially during the scorching summer season. "The reason why there is water shortage is because people keep stealing taps. The water just gushes out. There is no shortage...
04:10 AM, May 22, 2013
