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

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

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Centre's statement

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

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

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

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

(With ANI inputs)