NEW
DELHI: Communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on told the
Lok Sabha that the ministry on an average approves 5,000 call
interception requests a month based on "justified grounds" made by
various law enforcement agencies.
In reply to a question in the House, the minister said interception is done by law enforcement agencies under Section 5(2) of Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 read with Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951. "On an average 5,000 interception orders per month are issued by the Union home secretary on the requests supported by justified grounds/reasons made by law enforcement agencies," he said.
The minister informed the house that the Rule 419(A) of Indian Telegraph Rules allows lawful interception of phones under unavoidable circumstances. "In unavoidable circumstances, such order may be made by an officer not below the rank of a joint secretary to the government of India, who has been duly authorised by the Union home secretary or the state home secretary, as the case may be."
The required interception of any message or class of messages shall be carried out with the prior approval of the head or second senior most officer of the authorised security that is the law enforcement agency at the central level and the officers authorised in the behalf, not below the rank of Inspector General of Police at the state level, he said.
The minister also told the Lok Sabha that the department of telecom has received a request from an intelligence agency to block the application "We Phone" on charge that it allows identity of the caller to remain hidden.
"A reference from an intelligence agency was received by the DoT to block the 'We Phone App', which facilitates its subscriber to spoof the Calling Line Identification (CLI) through VoIP platform," Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply. Call spoofing hides identity of the caller when placing calls. Caller ID spoofing is used for making prank calls.
Any call initiated from 'We Phone App' is routed through its server located abroad and therefore is difficult to identify/locate the actual calling number/user, Prasad said.
On the issue of CLI spoofing, DoT had earlier constituted a technical committee which observed that a number of computer /mobile applications offer the facility to spoof calling line identification over the Internet, Prasad said.
In another reply, Prasad said telecom operators in the country had a total debt of Rs 2,42,896 crore on their books in 2013-14, communication and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Of the total debt, the share of public sector firms --MTNL and BSNL-- stood at Rs 18,579 crore or 7.6 per cent of the total debt, the minister said in a written reply.
BSNL and MTNL's debt stood at Rs 4,459 crore and Rs 14,120 crore respectively, while that of other operators totalled to Rs 2,24,317 crore in 2013-14, Prasad added."The debt figures include long term and short term borrowings. The figures are based on audited/unaudited financial information submitted by financial information submitted by the service providers," he said.
Bharti Airtel had the highest gross outstanding of Rs 255.91 crore, followed by Data Access Rs 211.53 crore, Reliance Communication and Reliance Telecom Rs 203.82 crore, and Tata Communications Rs 108.15 crore as on December 31, 2014.
In reply to a question in the House, the minister said interception is done by law enforcement agencies under Section 5(2) of Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 read with Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951. "On an average 5,000 interception orders per month are issued by the Union home secretary on the requests supported by justified grounds/reasons made by law enforcement agencies," he said.
The minister informed the house that the Rule 419(A) of Indian Telegraph Rules allows lawful interception of phones under unavoidable circumstances. "In unavoidable circumstances, such order may be made by an officer not below the rank of a joint secretary to the government of India, who has been duly authorised by the Union home secretary or the state home secretary, as the case may be."
The required interception of any message or class of messages shall be carried out with the prior approval of the head or second senior most officer of the authorised security that is the law enforcement agency at the central level and the officers authorised in the behalf, not below the rank of Inspector General of Police at the state level, he said.
The minister also told the Lok Sabha that the department of telecom has received a request from an intelligence agency to block the application "We Phone" on charge that it allows identity of the caller to remain hidden.
"A reference from an intelligence agency was received by the DoT to block the 'We Phone App', which facilitates its subscriber to spoof the Calling Line Identification (CLI) through VoIP platform," Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply. Call spoofing hides identity of the caller when placing calls. Caller ID spoofing is used for making prank calls.
Any call initiated from 'We Phone App' is routed through its server located abroad and therefore is difficult to identify/locate the actual calling number/user, Prasad said.
On the issue of CLI spoofing, DoT had earlier constituted a technical committee which observed that a number of computer /mobile applications offer the facility to spoof calling line identification over the Internet, Prasad said.
In another reply, Prasad said telecom operators in the country had a total debt of Rs 2,42,896 crore on their books in 2013-14, communication and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Of the total debt, the share of public sector firms --MTNL and BSNL-- stood at Rs 18,579 crore or 7.6 per cent of the total debt, the minister said in a written reply.
BSNL and MTNL's debt stood at Rs 4,459 crore and Rs 14,120 crore respectively, while that of other operators totalled to Rs 2,24,317 crore in 2013-14, Prasad added."The debt figures include long term and short term borrowings. The figures are based on audited/unaudited financial information submitted by financial information submitted by the service providers," he said.
Bharti Airtel had the highest gross outstanding of Rs 255.91 crore, followed by Data Access Rs 211.53 crore, Reliance Communication and Reliance Telecom Rs 203.82 crore, and Tata Communications Rs 108.15 crore as on December 31, 2014.
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