Centre submits statement in Kerala HC over state govt's Covid contract with US firm

Central government, on Thursday, submitted a statement in Kerala HC regarding three petitions challenging contract between Kerala government and US-based analytics firm called Sprinklr. statement was filed by Assistant Solicitor General P Vijaykumar on behalf of government. 

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Centre's statement

statement by Central government states that rights of people are diluted and that contract does t state compensation that citizens are eligible for in case of a breach of privacy. ''It is always preferable to utilise services available in government sector for sharing sensitive data required for analytical purposes. Government of India has introduced 'Aarogya Setu' application for collection of health data and about seven crore Indian citizens have already downloaded same. All state governments are advised to promote said application for fighting pandemic," statement said.

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Kerala High Court, on Tuesday, had asked state government to file a report on plea challenging COVID-19 data processing contract with  US firm and directed it to file a statement by April 24 on details of deal.  bench also directed government to explain reason for engaging a foreign firm for such works when government IT wings are re to do job. court observed that state government will be held responsible if firm misused data.

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state government had entered into a contract with IT company based out of US, owned by a n-resident Keralite, wherein data of suspected and actual patients of COVID-19 virus will be collected using government machinery and is uploaded to foreign firm''s web server on a daily basis.

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IT company, in turn, will provide actual data to State machinery after analysis, for better understanding and treatment of pandemic. petition was filed by Balu Gopalakrishnan, who said he was concerned about manner in which data regarding COVID19 patients in state are collected, stored, analysed and retrieved.

(With ANI inputs)