RTI reveals 4,620 phones tapped in Odisha
27 Nov, 2012Reply to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed that a total of 4,620 landline and mobile telephones were tapped in the state of Odisha between December 29, 2008 and September 15, 2012.
The RTI applicant Biswapriya Kanungo has claimed that 417 phones were tapped during 2000-08 as per reply to another RTI application filed by him in 2008. The reasons for the massive rise in the incidents of phone tapping during these years are not ascertainable.
Tapping of phones without any public interest amounts to an invasion of privacy and has been decried by the activists. It raises the suspicion of use of these powers for political purpose.