Jana Sena Party (JSP) president Pawan Kalyan has said that his party would move the court against the constitution of the ward and village volunteer system in Andhra Pradesh, seeking the protection of personal data and privacy.
Addressing a gathering of the party workers as part of his Varahi Yatra on July 11 (Tuesday), Mr. Pawan Kalyan said, “The ward and village volunteers do not have any right to collect and store personal data of households if they are not government functionaries. Are the volunteers a part the government machinery? If no, people should not share their data with them.”
“The Jana Sena Party will challenge the constitution of the ward and village volunteer system in the court of law as a part of the movement ‘My Data-My Right’ that fights for privacy and protection of personal data. The issues pertaining to Pegasus spyware and the introduction of Aadhaar have triggered a nationwide outrage as the people are scared of misuse of sensitive personal data,” said Mr. Pawan Kalyan.
The Jana Sena president further said that the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, was being formulated to guarantee the right of individuals to protect their personal data. The Bill is likely to be tabled in the Parliament during the Monsoon session of 2023.
Data storage
Appealing to the people not to share their personal data with the village and ward volunteers, Mr. Pawan Kalyan asked, “Where are you (volunteers) storing the household data? Where are the servers? The fundamental question is who are you if you are not government employees? It is a very dangerous move if a group of people volunteering for the government is allowed to keep an eye on every moment and happening in every household.”
The JSP president said that prior to the introduction of the volunteer system, the State ran well with the services of the wings such as revenue, panchayat, ward, and block/mandal level officials.
“Beginning from the registration of voters to the enumeration of the population, everything happened without any threat to the privacy of the people. In Andhra Pradesh, there is no need for a parallel system to the existing government wings,” he said.
