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Bhubaneswar: The Opposition Congress on Thursday demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik over the phone tapping issue during zero hour in state Assembly. Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh said, “Phones of political leaders including ministers are being tapped except the CM and we need a reply from Naveen on this.”
The Congress leader who mentioned phone tapping an infringement of right to privacy said the CM must tender his resignation in the matter. Senior BJP leader KV Singh Deo also echoed the voice of Singh terming the phone tapping illegal.
In a reply to the House, Panchayati raj and Parliamentary Affairs minister Kalpataru Das said telephones of neither any ministers or political leaders were tapped by the state government as alleged by the Opposition.
“Phone tapping has been done only for criminal investigations adhering to Indian Telegraph Act,” said Das.
The state government in response to a Right to Information (RTI) query on Saturday informed the House a total of 4,620 landline and mobile telephones were tapped in the state from December 29, 2008 to September 15, 2012.
However the government did not divulge identity of the persons whose telephonic conversations were recorded clandestinely.
