Cong to seek review of new data protection bill

NEW DELHI: The Congress will seek a review of the new Data Protection Bill when it is introduced in the Winter session of Parliament on the grounds that none of the suggestions given by the party were taken into consideration, a senior leader said.

The government introduced a new version of the privacy law on Friday, months after it abandoned one version on which a joint parliamentary committee gave its report, with dissent notes from several Congress members.

“The Joint Parliamentary Committee gave about a 100 suggestions but none of our suggestions have been added in the new bill. Even TMC leader Mahua Moitra’s suggestions have not been incorporated,” a senior party leader in the Rajya Sabha said, asking not to be named. “We will ask for a further review by a select committee,” the leader added.

While the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) that reviewed the bill comprised chosen members of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, a select committee belongs to one House and reviews a bill within a fixed time frame. Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Gaurav Gogoi earlier submitted dissent notes, citing a lack of oversight, failure to quantify penalties, absence of state-level data protection authorities (DPAS), and “unbridled” exemptions for the government as “reservations” to the JPC’S final report.

Ramesh said section 12, which covers non-consensual processing of data by the government, should have been made “less sweeping”.

Gogoi alleged “lack of attention” to “harms arising from surveillance” and also flagged concerns against sections 35 and 12.

TMC’S Mahua Moitra and Biju Janata Dal’s Amar Patnaik also filed a dissent report with the panel.