The Observer Volume 19 Issue 8

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The Observer An IIJNM publication

Workers’ safety is at risk as dry waste collection centres do not adhere to guidelines | P 2 News briefs Paan masala banned The Rajasthan government on Gandhi Jayanti announced a ban on paan masala and the production, storage and distribution of such products. Rajasthan is the third state in India to ban paan masala after Maharashtra and Bihar.

Automobile sales dip Automobile sales continued to show a decline in September but the industry is hopeful of increased sales on the eve of festive celebrations. Factors such as discounts and good monsoon are expected to increase consumer demand and spending.

Indian envoy summoned Pakistan on October 2 summoned India’s Deputy High Commissioner Gaurav Ahluwalia to register its protest against alleged ceasefire violations by the Indian troops along the Line of Control.

Japan raises sales tax Japan, world’s third largest economy increased its national sales tax to 10% from 8% on October 1.

The move comes amidst the givernment’s efforts to sustain economic growth despite the ageing population.

Brindavan Gardens fee up Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd (CNNL) has decided to increase the entry fees to the iconic tourist place Brindavan Gardens, near Krishnarajasagara dam in Mandya district from October 1.

The fee has been raised from Rs. 20 to Rs. 50 for adults and from Rs. 2 to Rs. 5 for students.

Fine for idol immersion National Mission for Clean Ganga has issued a directive to Chief Secretaries of the 11 Ganga basin states under Environment Protection Act,1986. Under this, idol immersion would be fined with Rs.50,000 and designated idol immersion areas have to created by construction of temporary confined ponds.

DD official suspended R. Vasumathi, Assistant director (Programme) of Chennai Doordarshan Kendra has been suspended after Doordarshan Tamil (Pothigai) failed to broadcast Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at a hackathon event and the subsequent convocation address in IIT-Madras on September 30 live.

Vol 19, Issue 8

@theweeklyobserver Epaper:https://issuu.com/ theweeklyobserver/docs Website: http://www. theweeklyobserver.in

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Lakes in poor condition due to garbage dumping; borewells cause water level to decline | P 3

Delayed Metro Phase 2 work brings hardship and worry Businesses hit in KR Puram, Silk Board, Kengeri

Service roads on ORR dug up for pillars

Meghna Das Chowdhury

Nissim Jacob

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he delay in the completion of Namma Metro Phase 2 is increasing traffic congestion. People of Kengeri, Silk Board Junction and K.R. Puram complain their lives and businesses are disrupted due to traffic jams.

The project has missed deadlines due to various reasons such as land acquisition and funding.

The construction site has occupied nearly half the area of roads, making it difficult for motorists.

The roads are so congested that drivers of huge trucks and buses find it very difficult to drive. Even pedestrians cannot walk freely.

At places where no work is going on, motorists have started parking their vehicles.

Fayez, a shopkeeper near the Silk Board Junction, informed The Observer: “This crossing is one of the busiest in the city. The Metro construction work has made the situation worse. Traffic inconvenience has increased a lot.

It has become difficult to even walk freely.”

According to an article in the Deccan Herald, “The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd's chief public relations officer B.L. Yashwant Chavan said they’re coordinating with the police on traffic plan and management.”

The Observer repeatedly tried to contact BMRCL PRO for his comment, but he was unavailable.

“Traffic congestion has caused a lot of loss to my business. People cannot stand with their vehicles near my shop. Policemen make sure the vehicles do not stop near the shops as it increases traffic jams,” Inayath N., who sells automobile parts, said. “The Metro construction work is carried out only for 2-3 days a week.”

M.S. Prakash, an assistant subinspector at the Karnataka traffic police headquarters, confirmed: “Traffic problems have increased due to Metro construction work.

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Traffic jams have increased at the Kengeri Junction due to metro construction | Credit: Meghna Das Chowdhury We keep getting posts and tweets on social media about people complaining about traffic congestion.

They send pictures of traffic jams.

If we see that the situation is serious, we try to resolve it as soon as possible. Managing traffic has become difficult....”

Namma Metro’s Phase 2 is expected to make commuting faster and safer for thousands of people.

Phase 2 includes four extensions of Phase I and two new lines. It covers the 19-km Outer Ring Road stretch from the Central Silk Board Junction to K.R. Puram (Phase II-A) and the 30km stretch from Nagawara to the Kempegowda International Airport (Phase II-B). When completed, Phase II is expected to have a daily ridership of 20 lakh.

Autorickshaw drivers and bus drivers say it is tough to drive on the congested roads.

Babu D, an autorickshaw driver in Kengeri, said: “It has

been five years since the work started. I don’t see them working every day. Construction material eats up half of the road. It becomes very difficult for us to ride or even walk.”

The increase in traffic has caused problems for the people..

As a result, they end up parking on the footpath, making it difficult for pedestrians to walk and for the shopkeepers to continue their business.

An official from the RTO agreed that traffic jams have increased due to the Metro work, adding that traffic management is mostly handled by the police.The matter comes to them only if there is something very serious.

Prakash said: “We have placed variable messaging systems in various parts of the city that tell you about the traffic scenarios in various parts of the city and help in traffic diversion.”

Continued on page 2

ervice roads along Outer Ring Road have been dug up to erect pillars for Namma Metro’s Red Line, causing inconvenience to residents of Kalyan Nagar, HRBR Layout and Kammanahalli. They fear the pillars will make it difficult for them to access the inner roads.

Raju Zacharia, a resident of Kammanahalli who often passes

by HRBR Layout, informed The Observer: “Construction of pillars on the road is only going to cause great difficulty for residents of the adjoining areas. They will no longer be able to access from Outer Ring Road (ORR). BMRCL should have taken it underground.”

Muthuraju, who runs a helmet store in HRBR Layout, said: “The construction of Metro pillars on the service road is going to block it and people won’t come to shops along the road.”

Metro work near Manyata Tech Park | Credit: Nissim Jacob The work is expected to increase traffic congestion near Manyata Tech Park, near the alreadycrowded Nagawara Junction. Divyanshu, an engineering student who often travels to Hebbal via ORR, complained of traffic jams.

Continued on page 3

CITY

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The Observer Thursday, October 3, 2019

Norms thrown to wind at dry waste centres Workers aren’t given training, safety gear Shoby Krishna G

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ry waste collection centres (DWCC), mandatory in all BBMP wards, do not follow the guidelines for waste segregation and human resources, endangering the safety and health of workers. Workers say they lack proper training and safety equipment, and do not have decent workplaces.

Muthuvel M., owner of the DWCC in Deepanjali Nagara (Ward No 158), informed The Observer: “There are three workers, including me. We work eight hours a day except Saturdays and Sundays. We don’t have uniforms or gloves. We have a makeshift room for having lunch and changing uniforms.”

The rule that no dry waste should be piled up outside DWCCs has been violated in Ward No. 132 (Attiguppe), where garbage trucks were found dumping waste indiscriminately on the road near the centre.

The Observer found that the centre did not have a proper cement floor and waste was handled by the workers without gloves. Mosquitoes were swarming the entire place. An obnoxious stink from rotting garbage hung over the place.

Asked about working conditions, owner Kumaresan P. said: “We are used to the smell. The agency which is responsible for maintenance has provided bleaching powder and gloves. But we don’t have uniforms or a separate lunch space. We don’t use

A worker in DWCC in Attiguppe ward stands amidst waste without any safety equipment which could lead to health issues | Credit: Shoby Krishna gloves as they feel unnatural. A gloves despite his insistence. funding. The DWCCs are to be person from ITC (which is in The employees do not have maintained in a self-sustainable charge of DWCCs in a few wards badges that are required by law. manner by the operator. in Bengaluru as part of its CSR They have no idea about social seOn this situation, BBMP chief initiative) and a BBMP official curity as they did not submit health officer Vijendra B.K. excome for inspections but they do identity proof like Aadhaar. plained: “BBMP is not directly renot come inside the centre.”

DWCCs sign MoUs with opera- sponsible for the DWCCs. It is the Enquiries by The Observer re- tors responsible for the mainte- responsibility of the contractor to vealed that no training was given nance of the centres and the maintain hygiene and safety. to the workers before they were workers. Sometimes, these organ- It is sad to know that workers are employed. The owners decide the isations are individuals or exposed to waste material which number of workers on a daily private contractors who do not could contain microplastics, imbasis. Women workers are gener- maintain the DWCCs in a func- pacting their long-term ally paid less compared to their tional manner.Their focus re- health. But we have been insistmale counterparts. mains only on the condition of the ing that only NGOs, and not indiThiruvasagam, owner of the DWCCs and not the condition of viduals or organizations, be made DWCC in Hampi Nagara (Ward the workers in it. contractors as they will ensure 133) for the past five years, said The Collection and Transport of that all mechanisms for workers there are no holidays for the Municipal Solid Waste and Street are in place.” workers, who take leave at their Sweeping Rules state that BBMP According to the BBMP webdiscretion. None of them wears is not responsible for additional site, DWCCs are operational in

Fed up of traffic problems, citizens wish Namma Metro Phase 2 is completed fast Continued from page 1 r V. Ramesh, head of the civil engineering department at the Rajarajeshwari College of Engineering, said: “There are many things that add to the delay. One cannot simply start digging a road. There is the problem of land acquisition. So many kilometres at a stretch have to be acquired. They need permission.

“Moving huge blocks of construction materials, bringing them to the construction site... all these need to be done during night when there is no traffic.

Therefore, all these things add up to the delay. Engineers plan a project within a certain deadline but when any hindrance comes up, the deadline gets extended.”

Bengalureans, like gym trainer Adnan, expect early completion of the project. “The delay is causing a lot of inconvenience, but once it is done, our lives will be much easier,” he said.

BMRCL releases newsletters every month to update citizens

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Citizen’s voice Go beyond GDP There is a need to analyze and focus on parameters other than GDP which affect our society. For example, governments should look at other indicators of development such as the human development Index and gender disparity index.

Shakeb Zuber Dark corridor Lack of streetlights in the Kumbalgodu area make it difficult for people to drive. It raises concerns regarding the safety of the citizens as there are many stray dogs and makes the area-prone to accidents. Authorities should look into the matter.

Chirag Dutta

Bengaluru Traffic Police receives a lot of complaints on social media regarding traffic jams | Credit: Meghna Das Chowdhury about Metro work.

According to the Union ministry of urban development, one of the conditions for approving the project was that the Karnataka government ensures land acquisition does not become a reason for

delay in implementation.Along with that, BMRCL regularly checks its website and replies to the queries and complaints of the citizens and any inquiries from the press. meghna.c@iijnm.org

all 198 wards and dry waste is collected by DWCC agencies twice a week. BBMP-allotted vehicles, painted blue, collect dry waste door to door in the 198 wards.

DWCCs also serve as drop-off points for other types of dry waste such as electronic waste.

Srikanta T.R. from the Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, an agency which manages some DWCCs, said: “Our work mainly involves educating the residents to segregate their waste so that it is easily manageable.

We have told the DWCC workers repeatedly not to handle waste with bare hands as they might get exposed to germs and contract health issues. Sometimes we have even tried threatening them that they would be asked to leave the work if they don’t wear gloves.

So they wear them only when we are visiting the centre.”

Last year, The Observer had reported that unsegregated waste was a problem for the workers at DWCCs. They demanded BBMP strictly enforce the waste-segregation law, which requires citizens to mandatorily segregate wet and dry waste and penalize citizens for its violation. This shows that the plight of DWCC workers remain in a dismal state.

On July 29, 2019, The New Indian Express reported BBMP audit findings which revealed that out of 167 centres started by BBMP in 2012-2013, only 141 existed on ground; the others were shut down or demolished. It also reported poor working conditions such as lack of toilets and sorting of waste in a primitive way.

In July, BBMP was reportedly planning to upgrade DWCCs and include waste pickers and women self-help groups in the formal waste management system. shoby.k@iijnm.org

Air pollution Air pollution in Bengaluru city is at its peak and is affecting citizens’ health. Homeless people and street vendors are the ones most affected. Skin diseases, asthma and pollen allergies are very common among them. Special steps should be taken by authorities to address the situation.

Sajeet Lakra

Fire threat ignored Russell Market, one of the historical places in Bengaluru, has not received a no-objection certificate from the fire department even after a recent judgment by the Karnataka High Court. The court ordered that if the civic bodies do not fix lapses in implementing fire safety measures in the market, it would think of closing down the market.

Ishika Dangayach Gandhi@150 The Mahatma’s idea of inclusiveness among communities still remains a distant reality across the world. In the present context, it becomes even more important for us to read and follow his ideas.

Priyansh Verma Economic slowdown The government might be denying there is an economic slowdown, but the output report on eight core sectors, including steel, refineries, natural gas and crude oil for August 2019, shows the growth rate is down by 0.5 per cent.

Vivek Kumar

CITY

The Observer Thursday, October 3, 2019

Garbage dumping and borewell digging make city’s lakes ill Excessive silt deposition is another reason Shivani Priyam

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engaluru’s lakes are in a poor condition. Excessive silt deposition and installation of borewells nearby has caused a steady decline in their water level.

Residents say lakes should be treated on a yearly basis depending on the level of rain received.

Yediyur lake in Basavanagudi, said to date back to 1,400 years, has become a breeding ground for flies and mosquitoes, say walkers and joggers.

Muralidhar N., a retired police inspector who comes to the lake to walk every evening, informed The Observer: “The state government occasionally takes measures to clean up the lake. We have a team of 15 people who visit the lake every day. Lack of adequate rain in this area is leading to the water turning stagnant, while fresh springs are few.”

Agara lake whic was once huge, is now reduced to a small area..

Digging of borewells in the vicinity has reduced the amount of water in the lake.

Aman Khan, a student of the

Twitterati talk @srinualavilli Why is West Bengaluru ignored? A question that always perplexed me. It makes lot of sense to Go West! The airport should have been there too.

Growth in west will reduce load on South East & North & better connect with other cities of our state. Govt must take proactive steps. @sardesairajdeep In Bengal, @AmitShah says we will first bring citizenship amendment act and then do the NRC. In Assam, the BJP Govt has done just the opposite. Different strokes for different folks/states! Vote bank politics anyone?! @BangaloreBuzz Dear PM @narendramodi, Karnataka needs your help more than ever. The families have have lost their home, belongings and livelihoods in #KarnatakaFloods.25 @BJP4Karnataka MPs and yet the blatant disregard and sheer apathy towards our state. Why this step-motherly treatment? @suhasinih NSA flies to Saudi to discuss Kashmir. 370 move has become the "completely internal" issue to be explained mostly externally.27

In May 2015, the liquid foam covering the water surface caught fire and burnt for hours in Bellandur lake | Credit- Shivani Priyam.

Carmel Garden Public School, said: “I visit the lake once or twice in a month with my two sisters....

Construction of new apartments in the area and digging of private borewells have caused the water level to sink further.”

Bellandur lake, the largest in Bengaluru, caught fire in January 2018. Chemical effluents from factories discharged into it caused the fire to burn for hours. Sewage and industrial waste still flow into the lake, polluting it further.

The water at the banks is stagnant and full of froth and mud.

The lake doesn’t have a walking track. Encroachers are penalized according to the law.

Shivam Kumar Pathak, who sells juice near the lake, said: “The water in the lake is extremely dirty. Factories discharge chemicals into the lake, producing a bad stench.”

Captain Sadhashiv Badigere, a National Green Tribunal officer, said: “We look for all-round protection of the lake. Our men, deployed across the boundaries, seize vehicles parked illegally. We do not allow anyone to get closer than 75 metres from the lake.”

People dumping garbage into the water body are penalized.

Puttenahalli Lake in JP Nagar 7th Phase has become a dump of garbage, mud and sewage. When

it rains heavily, walking along it gets difficult. Polluted water and sewage flow into the lake through a channel. The Observer found piles of garbage and mud on the banks of the lake.

Pawan Raj, who lives opposite the lake, said: “I have stayed here for almost 22 years. Just one month ago, we complained to BBMP about the clogged roads and lake, but nothing has been done. The authorities clean the lake once in a year, especially during the rainy season.”

M Deena Pavana, assistant executive engineer, Bangalore Development Authority, informed The Observer: “We have written to the Pollution Control Board to check the level of pollution in the water bodies. The NGT is monitoring the process. Encroachments are removed and the BWSSB has set up sewage-treatment plants to cleanse the lakes.

Once the water is dry, we try to desilt the lake, so the capacity of the water increases.”

The Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority Act, 2014, states that the function of the Authority is to exercise regulatory control over all lakes within its jurisdiction, including prevention of encroachments.The Authority plans to take up environmental impact assessment studies for all lakes. shivani.p@iijnm.org

Rerouting traffic is best option to ease congestion, say experts Continued from page 1

Around the city lSpiritual Science Delight for Executives-With B.Sivaramappa, B.Rajesh, P.S.R.K. Prasad at Hotel Hindustan International on 6th October from 10:00-5:00 pm. lDurgotsav 2019 at Royals Hall-Manpho Convention Center from 3rd Oct-8th Oct, 8:30 am-2:00 pm. lCakesicle and Cake pop Beginners workshop in Bangalore

By Bloom and Grow Sat, 5 Oct 2:00PM - 6:00PM Bloom & Grow , South Bangalore Check Estimated Time Rs 500 onwards. lBengaluru's Biggest Dandiya Utsav at XU The Leela Palace with DJ Suketu By jayasimha Events Sat, 5 Oct 8:00PM Sun, 6 Oct 1:00AM XU- THE LEELA PALACE Rs 399 onwards. lPalette knife Painting workshop by The Living Walls

By The Living Walls Fri, 4 Oct 12:00PM - 2:30PM The Living Walls - Art Craft Studi, Rs 1600 lInternational Conference on Computer Science, Industrial Electronics at Trinity Isle on 6th Oct. lIce Music Festival - Dandiya Night Celebration at Ice BarTeppanyaki on Sat, 5 Oct, 7:00 pm – Sun, 6 Oct, 12:30 am. lBangalore Fort Gamifyi`d at Bangalore Fort on Sat, 5 Oct, 5:30 am – Sun, 6 Oct, 5:30 am. lMahatma Gandhi Midnight Marathon at Banaswadi, Bengaluru on Sat, 5 Oct.

Weather

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sked how the traffic police would deal with the situation, M.S. Prakash, an assistant sub- inspector, said: “When the work is at full pace, we will look into traffic diversion.

Moreover construction work can be restricted to particular timings to reduce traffic congestion.”

Dr V Ramesh, an expert on urban planning, disagrees with the decision to take Phase 2 of the Metro underground. “Unlike Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, Bengaluru is full of hills and valleys. Soil condition plays an important role in construction.

Blasting, a process used in underground Metro construction, is dangerous for... Bengaluru. It will have an adverse impact on surrounding structures and affect citizens’ safety. That is why an area assessment needs to be undertaken,” he added.

Asked if poor urban planning was responsible for the problems associated with Metro construction, he agreed, but added: “It is difficult to predict the population change in urban areas. Bengaluru’s population has grown exponentially over the past 20 years. Urban planning plays a

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Maximum temperature- 28 degrees Celsius Minimum temperature-20 degrees Celsius Forecast-Generally cloudy sky with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers Precipitation- 11% Humidity- 80% Wind- 7 km/h Metro construction work on the Red Line is expected to be finished by 2023 | Credit: Nissim Jacob limited role unless a city is built from the scratch, as Chandigarh and Gandhinagar were.”

M.N. Sreehari, an adviser to the Karnataka government on traffic, transportation and infrastructure, agreed with Ramesh.

He said while service lanes are of great utility, Metro services are of greater importance and rerouting is the best option.

The Red Line of Namma Metro (Phase 2) construction work between Gottigere and Nagawara is estimated to cost Rs 5,047 crore.

It will pass through Electronics City. The line is proposed to be

mostly underground, though there will be elevated sections.

BMRCL’s deadline for all Phase 2 projects is 2023.

According to a Hindu report, the project has faced roadblocks in the tendering process. A tender floated for the tunnel network in June 2017 was cancelled after bidders quoted prices nearly 70% higher than BMRCL estimates. It was estimated that the project would cost Rs. 5,047 crore, but the bidders quoted Rs 8,553 crore.

The BMRCL PRO was unavailable for comment. nissim.j@iijnm.org

Team Observer Editor: Shoby Krishna G Copy editors:Tamanna Yasmin, Shoby Krishna G, Nissim Jacob, Shivani Priyam Page Layout:Meghna Das Chowghury, Nissim Jacob, Shivani Priyam, Tamanna Yasmin Reporters: Meghna Das Chowdhury, Shoby Krishna G, Nissim Jacob, Shivani Priyam Photo editor: Tamanna Yasmin Supplements: Arghyadeep Dutta, Shalu Chowrasia

Media

The Observer Thursday, October 3, 2019

SUPPLEMENT

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The Power of Misinformation Much like obesity, fake news has become a major lifestyle disease of the 21st century, writes Arghyadeep Dutta

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rom the days of the printing press to today’s Internet, the power of news to shape public opinion has grown exponentially. Before the introduction of newspapers, the problem was the lack of information. Thanks to New Media, now there’s too much information. We consume information every second, without giving a thought to its origin, credibility or context, and that has created a uniquely modern problem of mass misinformation.

The primary function of news, of providing facts and information to the reader, was threatened in the mid-1890s when two American newspapers,Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal, started sensationalising and fabricating war news to sell more copies. The sensationalism of news, was termed ‘yellow journalism’ after a popular cartoon strip of the times, pales next to the flood misinformation and fake news that flows into the lives of ordinary people today.

With telecom revolution underway in India, now fuelled by Re-

could be tracked via satellite to track black money!

In 2017, a morphed religious picture was shared through WhatsApp by a high school student fuelled a six-day communal riot in Basirhat, a small town in West Bengal. The state government had to impose section 144 of the penal code, deploy paramilitary troops and shutdown Internet services to prevent the riots spreading.

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Fake news has become a part and parcel of our lives | Credit: Pexels

liance Jio Infocomm, Internet usage has more than doubled in the last 2 years from 250 million to 525 million, according to German database Statista. The low tariff rate has allowed millions to access information in real time on their smartphones. Facebook and WhatsApp have become the two major players in the Indian market, one of the fastest growing net communities in the world.

A recent study by the Institute for Governance, Policies and Politics (IGPP) revealed that 1 in 2 Indians have received fake news over various social media platforms.The day after the demonetisation of high-value currency notes in November 2016, reputed news channels Aaj Tak and Zee News spread the story that new denomination of Rs.2,000 note would have a nano GPS chip that

eople spread information because it makes them look smarter than others. According to the ‘Cultivation Theory’ proposed by Professor George Gerbner, when we read a story or watch a video, it reinforces our own strong emotions, we are often motivated to share that information through social media.

The more people share a story, the more believable it becomes to others. The more widely a story is spread, the less likely is it to be fact-checked. Similarly, individuals or special-interest groups often contribute to a false or biased narrative to spread their ideology.

In 2018, UNESCO published a Handbook on Journalism, Fake News and Disinformation which differentiated between the three rogue elements of information, namely disinformation which is spread deliberately, misinformation which is spread unintentionally and mal-information which is spread to harm others.

To tackle the spread of fake news, Facebook is using artificial intelligence (AI) and collaborating with a team of journalists to verify whether a post is up to the mark with community standards and not spreading fake news or hate speeches. WhatsApp is restricting users from excessive forwards of messages and recently collaborated with an Indian AI firm Proto, where users can forward a message for fact checking within the app.

“A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on,” Mark Twain is famously quoted saying. But a Google search will reveal that it was in fact said by CH Surgeon. When a remark about the power of falsehood is itself falsified, we know we have a problem on our hands.

Controlling Social Media Even as society tries to combat the misuse of social media, the government’s power to monitor it grows, says Shalu Chowrasia

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n 2018, the Supreme Court was asked if India had become a ‘surveillance state’. A right to information request filed

by Venkatesh Nayak had revealed that the Union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting had been monitoring social media accounts and posts of citizens, including personal chats and emails for past two years. In April that year, a tender was floated to extend and upgrade the ministry’s surveillance scheme for another year and that was when it became public.

But the judges said that social media is a new-generation technology which can be used to spread rumours and can cause disharmony among citizens and asked the Union government to frame guidelines to curb its misuse.

Sujal, a teenager who uses social media to express his thoughts and get news updates considers it his personal space. “To know that I am constantly being monitored is a breach of my fundamental right to privacy. Today they are monitoring my updates without my will, tomorrow they might bar

me from using the web, censor what I post without my knowledge or even sell my private data.”

Ever since UK-based Cambridge Analytica was indicted for collecting social media data of individuals without their consent for use in political messaging, a global consensus has emerged against the misuse of online user data. But if we are already being surveilled by the government, the need for guidelines to curb socialmedia misuse should not be necessary.

News reports say that since the gutting of Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcation of J&K into two union territories, a central law enforcement agency is keeping a check on all social media in the state.

Mass surveillance is being carried out under secretive projects like Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Netra drone programme and the Lawful Intercept and Monitoring (LIM) Project. LIM Systems are allegedly used by the Indian government to monitor internet traffic, e-mails browsing history

study firmly believed that everyone is already under being monitored, “Every time I log on to my social network account, I see ads of products that are on my Amazon wish list. These companies have enough data of our consumer behaviour and they might have access to some private information that we have shared overtime on the web as well.”

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Are you looking at me? | Courtesy: Mehraj Mir (Flickr)

and any other internet activity of users.

Whether the surveillance is lawful or unlawful, it hardly matters if the data from it is not being utilized to solve the circulation of fake and harmful ‘news’.

Worse, surveillance is not just of a person who is under suspicion of committing a crime. Everyone is a suspect if they are under sur-

veillance. The views, likes, reactions, comments, in fact everything an individual updates on their social media can be used to analyse their behaviour, including their political and social views.

Avinanda Banerjee, a researcher who actively uses social media to get updates from fellow researchers on the field of her

ocial media is a virtual communication tech, a vast network of people and their personal and public information, intricately knit. When a public post is updated, it is accessible to anyone who wants to or whosoever stumbles on it.

Sitting on a sofa, scrolling on multiple feeds and sharing chain messages, people don’t realise they don’t know the origin of the posts they are reacting to. It isn’t possible to see who’s sitting on the other side of the screen but that freedom to interact is precisely what’s protected under the right to privacy. As China demonstrates, mass surveillance will not make the citizen feel any safer.