Sanchar Saathi App: Govt spells out the mandate

A day after the Department of Telecom (DoT) mandated Sanchar Saathi application on all new mobile phones, Union Minister for Telecom Jyotiraditya Scindia clarified, “If you want, you can activate it; if you don’t, then don’t activate it… If you don’t want Sanchar Sathi, you can delete it. It’s not mandatory. It is optional.” The minister was speaking outside the Parliament. His clarification came after the Opposition raised privacy concerns and fears of State surveillance. They also demanded the immediate rollback of this direction.