The Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka has banned private companies from collecting voter data in the state. This comes weeks after TNM’s investigation into the voter data theft by private entity Chilume after obtaining permission from Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). The CEO has directed all District Election Officers (DEO) in the state to ensure that necessary measures are taken so that private agencies cannot collect voter data. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka, Manoj Kumar Meena, has issued directives regarding the same. The CEO has said that any attempt at collecting data by surveying houses or using fake identity cards will not be allowed.
The CEO further added that the issue of No Objection Certificate (NOC) by DEOs or Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) to permit private entities to collect voter data is strictly prohibited. Manoj Kumar also said that he has been seeing reports in various media platforms that there have been complaints about certain private entities visiting people’s houses and collecting their personal information. He said that the data collection is being done manually and through IT applications.
On November 16, TNM published a report on how an NGO named Chilume Cultural and Rural Development Institute was given permission by BBMP to conduct voter awareness to revise electoral rolls ahead of the Karnataka elections. But it was discovered that the NGO was collecting information by providing its field officers with identity cards which said that they were Booth Level Officers (BLO) of the BBMP. Hours after this report was published, BBMP issued a press release cancelling the Government Order (GO) provided to BBMP and asked citizens not to share their data with anyone. On November 18, the head of the NGO, Krishnappa Ravikumar was arrested along with other Chilume employees including the NGO director Renuka Prasad, HR executive Dharmesh and project executive Prajwal.