Supreme Court notice to Centre, WhatsApp against payments service
New Delhi, Aug 27 : The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre and messaging service provider WhatsApp after a plea sought direction to restrain the app from proceeding with its payments systems unless it fully complies with RBI's provisions.
A bench of Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice Indu Malhotra sought response from WhatsApp, Law and Justice Ministry, Finance Ministry and Information Technology Ministry within four weeks.
Advocate Virag Gupta, appearing for the petitioner Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change, contended that the messaging platform does not comply with provision of mandating a Grievance Officer and other laws of India including Know Your Customer (KYC) norms laid down by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The plea said that while companies like Facebook and Google have appointed Grievance Officers for users in India, WhatsApp had not.
In order to make WhatsApp accountable, it must be directed to comply with Indian laws and appoint a Grievance Officer who shall address grievances of the consumers as well as co-ordinate with investigating agencies, it added.
WhatsApp is a foreign company with no office or servers in India and to run payments service here it is obligated to have its office and payments in India, said the plea.
The advocate said WhatsApp was being allowed to continue with its payments and other services without any checks.
WhatsApp has over 200 million users in India and almost one million people are "testing" WhatsApp's payments service in India, which is the largest base for the Facebook-owned company that has over 1.5 billion users globally, according to the petition.
Every user has a number on WhatsApp but the messaging platform does not have a number through which the users can contact the company for grievance redressal, it added.
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Maharashtra sets up state vaccination task force to strengthen immunisation programme
Mumbai (PTI): The Maharashtra government has set up a State Vaccination Task Force to strengthen the regular immunisation programme and review the progress of related campaigns, a health department official said on Monday.
The State Vaccination Task Force will comprise at least 29 members and will be headed by the administrative head of the health department, he informed.
The government has also constituted separate district-level and municipal vaccination task forces to improve implementation and address challenges at the grassroots level, he said.
Municipal task forces, chaired by respective civic commissioners, have been constituted in view of the vast urban population in Maharashtra and the role of civic bodies in implementing different health programmes.
The district-level task forces will function under the chairmanship of collectors.
"Complete immunisation of children at the appropriate age is an extremely simple, cost-effective and highly effective measure to reduce child mortality and the prevalence of diseases among kids. Immunisation is a powerful tool for reducing illness in children," maintained the official.
To ensure full vaccination of all children, the state government implements various campaigns from time to time as per the central government guidelines, he pointed out.
"Active participation and cooperation of other relevant government departments are essential (in making these campaigns successful)," according to the official.
The state-level body will review the regular immunisation programme, associated campaigns and vaccine-preventable diseases in detail. It will also conduct focused assessments of high-risk districts and municipal corporations, including vacancies at district, municipal and sub-district levels, availability of cold chain equipment, resource gaps and training requirements, he noted.
The state task force will review allocation and utilisation of funds for immunisation and ensure timely action by officers concerned based on reports from district and municipal task forces and state-level monitoring mechanisms, the official said.
It will also ensure active coordination and participation of other government departments in immunisation drives, while district and municipal task forces will carry out similar functions at their respective levels, the official added.
