Govt working with RBI to look into financial frauds below Rs 1 lakh: Ravi Shankar Prasad
New Delhi, Jan 4 : The government is working with the Reserve Bank (RBI) to look into cases of financial frauds involving amounts which are below Rs 1 lakh, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
A Financial Data Protection bill has been drafted that aims to address issues related to data theft, including from social networking websites, he also told the House.
Presently, the RBI along with banks is tracking cases of frauds related to credit, debit and ATM cards and internet banking involving over Rs one lakh, he said.
"The data of India cannot be stolen and strict action will be taken against any kind of fraud," Prasad said during the Question Hour while responding to Supplementary queries.
He also mentioned that the data on hacking placed before the Upper House is substantially related to financial fraud. The RBI is already looking into cases of frauds involving transaction above Rs one lakh.
"We are working with the RBI to look into frauds involving transaction below Rs one lakh amount," he said.
To a supplementary query on steps taken to curb hacking of data from social networking sites, Prasad said, "Today, India will not bow down to the new imperialism. We took action against Facebook the moment we received the complaint."
A Financial Data Protection bill has been drafted that aims to address all these issue, he said.
The Minister also said there are problems because of uncertainty of cyber world. However, the government conducts security drills and has also set up centres to provide protection.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
SC to hear today NGO's plea for release of voter turnout data for LS polls within 48 hours
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to grant an urgent hearing on a plea by an NGO seeking a direction to the Election Commission to upload polling station-wise voter turnout data on its website within 48 hours of conclusion of polling for each phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked the counsel appearing for the Election Commission (EC) to take instructions and said it will hear the matter at the end of the board.
The matter was mentioned by advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), seeking urgent listing of the petition.
Last week, the NGO filed an interim application in its 2019 PIL seeking directions to the poll panel that "scanned legible copies of Form 17C Part-I (Account of Votes Recorded)" of all polling stations be uploaded immediately after the polls.
"Direct the Election Commission to provide tabulated polling station-wise data in absolute figures of the number of votes polled as recorded in Form 17C Part- I after each phase of polling in the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections and also a tabulation of constituency-wise figures of voter turnout in absolute numbers in the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections," the NGO said.
It said the plea was filed to ensure that the democratic process is not subverted by electoral irregularities.
"The voter turnout data for the first two phases of the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections published by ECI on April 30 has been published after 11 days of the first phase of polling... on April 19 and four days after second phase of polling... on April 26.
"The data, as published by the ECI in its press release dated April 30, 2024 shows a sharp increase (by about 5-6 per cent) as compared to the initial percentages announced by ECI as of 7 pm on the day of polling," the plea said.
The petition said the "inordinate" delay in the release of final voter turnout data, coupled with the unusually high revision of over 5 per cent in the poll panel's press note of April 30, 2024 has raised concerns and public suspicion regarding the correctness of the said data.
The non-release of the absolute number of votes polled coupled with the "unreasonable delay" in the release of votes polled data has led to apprehensions in the mind of the electorate about the sharp increase between initial data and data released on April 30, it said.
"These apprehensions must be addressed and put to rest. That in order to uphold the voter's confidence it is necessary that the ECI be directed to disclose on its website scanned legible copies of Form 17C Part- I (Account of Votes Recorded) of all polling stations which contains the authenticated figures for votes polled, within 48 hours of the close of polling," it said.
