Previous UPA govt made authorisation rules: Jaitley

New Delhi, Dec 21: The government’s move to authorise 10 Central agencies to intercept any information on computers today rocked the Rajya Sabha, with Union Minister Arun Jaitley saying the opposition was creating a mountain out of a mole hill as the authorisation was given under old rules.

Congress leader Anand Sharma raised the issue of the MHA authorising 10 central agencies to intercept any information on computers.

Replying to him, Jaitley said it would have been better if the Opposition had obtained all information before raising this issue.

“The Opposition is making a mountain out of a mole hill where even a mole hill does not exist,” he said.

“When senior members from Opposition raise an issue every word spoken by them has precious value and therefore they must know facts,” Jaitley told the House amid the din.

He said the rules under which agencies have been authorised to intercept were framed in 2009 when the Congress led UPA was in power.

The division bench said the order needs to consider afresh the 36 intelligence inputs submitted by the state government before the single bench.

Advocate General Kishore Dutta, representing the state, said that the single bench had not considered the intelligence inputs submitted to it in a sealed cover and had returned it to him without even opening it. (PTI)

Hope SC takes a long, hard look: Omar

Srinagar, Dec 21: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah Friday expressed hope that the Supreme court will take a “long hard look” at the legality of the Centre’s order which allows government agencies to intercept “any information” contained in any computer system.

“Given that the government has now authorised multiple agencies to snoop on the personal & official computers of the Hon’ble judges of the Supreme Court I hope the SC takes a long hard look at the legality of the order. #surveillancestate #emergency2pointzero,” Omar tweeted.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)