The Hindu : National : "Change in laws must to check phone tapping"

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Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006

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National

"Change in laws must to check phone tapping"

"Now that the business has moved into private hands, it is better to regulate the operations of telecom companies"

New Delhi: Union Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj on Tuesday favoured changes in laws to provide safeguards against phone tapping, saying ``the laws we have at the moment are not in keeping with the changing times.''

The Ministry would take up the matter only after the Information Technology or Telecommunications Ministries raised the issue, he told CNN-IBN in an interview.

Maintaining that changing the laws was the only way out, he said ``the days are gone when telephone business was in the hands of the government alone.

``If BSNL and MTNL were providing the services, we could have easily apprehended the culprit. Now that the business has moved into private hands, it is better to regulate the operations of telecom companies,'' a release issued by the channel quoted Mr. Bhardwaj as saying.

The Minister said ``safeguards have to be provided and changing the laws is a good idea. But let the Ministries involved, Telecom or Information Technology, raise the issue first. Then the Law Ministry will take it up.''

Legal safeguards

Emphasising the need for having legal safeguards, he said ``this is the only answer to these problems because private companies are running the telecom sector. The issue will have to be studied by the relevant Ministry. Let the Telecom Ministry come up with a suggestion and we will follow it up.'' — PTI

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