Government setting up centralised monitoring system for lawful interception: Ravi Shankar Prasad

NEW DELHI: The government is setting up a centralised monitoring system (CMS) to automate process of lawful interception and monitoring of phones and internet, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today.

The monitoring centre at Delhi, and regional monitoring centre (RMC) at New Delhi and Mumbai have been operationalised.

"Government has decided to set up the CMS in a phased manner to automate the process of lawful interception and monitoring of mobile phones, landlines and the internet in the country," Prasad said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

He further said the phase related with technology development and pilot trials of the CMS have been completed.

"The CMC at Delhi, RMC at New Delhi and Mumbai has been operationalised and other RMC in licence service area, under CMC project across the country are progressively being operationalised in a phased manner," Prasad said.

The aim and objective of CMS include electronic provisioning of target number by government agency without any manual intervention from telecom service providers (TSPs) on a secured network, thus enhancing the secrecy level and quick provisioning of target.

"Secure flow of intercepted communication on near real time basis between law enforcement agency and TSPs on secured and dedicated CMS network," the Minister said.

He further added central and regional centres which will help central and state level law enforcement agencies in lawful interception and monitoring in serious desirable cases of national security and allied matters.

"Research and development in related fields for continuous upgradtion of the CMS," he added.