Pinarayi in the dock for deal with US firm to share Covid-19 patients’ data

Oppn Plea In HC Seeks Quashing Of Agreement Between Kerala Govt & Firm

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kochi:23.04.2020

Kerala’s leader of the opposition Ramesh Chennithala on Wednesday filed a petition in the Kerala high court demanding that the agreement between the state government and US-based company Sprinklr for sharing data of Covid-19 patients be quashed, even as chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan who is in the eye of the Sprinklr storm remained in denial.

The LDF government has been pushed to the wall ever since charges surfaced that the government had not done due diligence while collecting sensitive Covid-19 data or to ensure that this data didn’t fall into the wrong hands. On Tuesday, the high court said it cannot, prima facie, agree to the state government’s stance that data of Covid-19 patients and suspects being shared with Sprinklr is not sensitive or privileged. Sprinklr reportedly has links to pharma giant Pfizer.

On Tuesday, in an attempt at damage control, the state government constituted a committee - comprising former additional chief secretary (health) Rajeev Sadanandan and IT expert and former Union civil aviation secretary M Madhavan Nambiar - to inquire into the allegations of breach of rules and privacy in the agreement with Sprinklr. However, Chennithala said the two-member committee had no power to conduct an inquiry into an international deal and cannot summon the necessary documents or interrogate the chief minister who is also the minister for IT.

The high court on Tuesday had questioned the need for engaging a third party software as a service provider when the number of patients in Kerala was very low. “There is only one thing that we are concerned about... how can you guarantee us that the data is remaining confidential? Just guarantee us that,” the HC observed.

The additional advocate general responded that around 80 lakh persons may have to be screened and that their data is being stored in central government-approved Amazon cloud service.

The CPM continued to support Vijayan, arguing that the government had the right to take extraordinary steps in extraordinary situations. “The government has the responsibility to take unusual steps to save the lives of people. Existing laws provide the government the right to do that. Life of people and wellbeing of the society is more important at this juncture than individual freedom,” a statement issued by the state secretariat here said.

After opposition parties started baying for Vijayan’s blood in the alleged data security breach, state IT secretary M Sivasankar had claimed sole responsibility. He said Vijayan had given him permission to go ahead with the plans to use the service of Sprinklr, run by a Malayali entrepreneur based in the US.

Full report on www.toi.in

IN A SOUP: Pinarayi Vijayan

Kerala to cut salaries of staff for some days in a mth

Thiruvananthapuram: Brushing aside the protest raised by the opposition and service organisations against a mandatory salary cut for government employees, Kerala cabinet on Wednesday decided to go ahead with the plan of collecting a month’s salary from government employees, teachers, university staff and state public sector unit employees. The amount would be collected in equal instalments for a period of five months.

Announcing the cabinet decision at his news conference, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the government was not in a position to heed to the protests against salary cut. “Proportionate salary for six days of a month will be deducted when salary payment is made. In this fashion, 30 days’ salary would be cut in five months. This would be applicable to government employees, teachers, university staff, employees of state public sector units and government undertakings. However, employees drawing less than ₹20,000 a month would be exempted from the compulsory deduction,” the CM said. TNN