Pinarayi Vijayan's personal messages to employees ahead of Kerala Assembly polls spark data misuse charge

Petitions alleging that the personal data of the government employees were illegally used for political campaigns have been filed by a couple of individuals at Kerala HC.

Thiruvananthapuram: Personal messages by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to the mobile phones of all the state government employees by addressing them by name and reminding that the government had kept its assurances pertaining to disbursement of dearness allowance (DA) dues has triggered allegations of data theft.

Petitions alleging that the personal data of the government employees were illegally used for political campaigns have been filed by a couple of individuals at the Kerala High Court. The court is likely to consider the petitions on Tuesday.

Mobile phone numbers and personal data of the employees from the  Service and Payroll Administrative Repository for Kerala (SPARK) were allegedly misused for sending the messages. 

Congress said that "the chief minister was caught red handed for using official SPARK databases to spam government employees and people with election propaganda. This is a massive breach of trust and individual privacy," Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) alleged.

The messages addressing each employee by their name and listing out the welfare measures initiated by the government for them are widely seen and an outreach ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls.

The move has come close on the heels of the state government hiking DA to the government employees from 25 per cent to 35 per cent. 

Meanwhile, the state government on Monday announced the pay commission for revision of salaries of state government employees and pensioners. The commission headed by former chief secretary V P Joy has been asked to submit its report in three months, finance minister K N Balagopal has said.

The moves just ahead of the polls is also widely interpreted as one to influence the voters.