Govt followed norms, no leak: CM

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday rejected allegations of data leakage raised by senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, asserting that all procedures were followed and that no personal data was shared outside govt systems.In a statement issued by the chief minister's office (CMO), the govt said it receives thousands of daily queries related to public services and welfare schemes. These are addressed through the chief minister's grievance redressal cell at the Secretariat and the ‘CM with Me' facility, which allows citizens to directly register complaints. As part of its broader e-governance initiatives, the state has also launched the ‘Namude Keralam' mobile app and web portal to integrate services on a single digital platform.
The Citizens' Response Programme, introduced to gather public opinion on governance issues, had received the approval of the Supreme Court, the statement added.Despite these mechanisms, the govt continues to receive a high volume of enquiries regarding services, benefits and administrative decisions. To address this, it has initiated a centralised notification hub for govt services to provide essential information directly to beneficiaries. Messages related to services delivered by various departments are being communicated to eligible individuals under this initiative.The Kerala State IT Mission, described as the govt's apex agency for e-governance, has been entrusted with managing unified messaging since the information pertains to multiple departments.The statement said the letter cited by the opposition itself outlines the official procedures followed, and accused critics of portraying a lawful administrative communication as evidence of wrongdoing.It clarified that the objective of creating a centralised notification hub and a ‘data lake' — a comprehensive information repository — was explicitly mentioned in the communication. In the digital era, such integrated systems are essential for delivering targeted messages and informing beneficiaries about schemes, it said, adding that similar platforms are used by the Union and other state govts.Data security is a core responsibility of the IT Mission, the statement said, noting that all personal data remain secure within government systems and are not shared with any external agencies. Infrastructure for secure storage is provided by the state data centre under the IT Department.Describing the allegation of data leakage as "malicious," the CMO said routine service-related alerts cannot be construed as privacy violations.