Chennithala alleges CMO sought personal data of employees, CM says it was for 'data lake'

Pathanamthitta/Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 25 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala on Wednesday claimed that personal details of government employees and pensioners, for sending messages about the state government's achievements, were sought by an official in the CMO.

While not rejecting Chennithala's claim, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the details were sought from various departments to create a "data lake" which is a vast collection of information.

"The government believes that implementing data integration of the various departments will greatly help in providing personalised notifications. The central and other state governments transmit messages to citizens based on the information collected in this way," Vijayan claimed.

The CM said that the letter released to media by the Congress leader only shows the official steps taken by the government to collect the details.

"Circulating the letter as evidence of something that should not have happened is for some other purpose," he claimed in a statement issued by his office.

Vijayan also said that there is a "malicious intent" behind interpreting government messages sending notifications, like "you have been granted DA arrears" and "It is time to pay your land tax", as data leakage.

The CM said that the Kerala IT Mission, the apex state agency for e-governance, collected the information and is responsible for ensuring it is kept secure.

"There has been no compromise of any kind in any of this. All personal information is safe in government systems.

"None of this information is shared with or handed over to any agency outside the government. In addition, the government has an extensive State Data Center (SDC) system under the IT department to keep all the information safe," he assured.

He said it was unfortunate that the Congress-led UDF's politics was to move forward by opposing all the schemes that the government is formulating for the people.

He further claimed that the opposition did not want people to get the information about the various government decisions and the projects being implemented for the public.

"There is no doubt that it is a public declaration of the fear of being isolated from the people," Vijayan contended.

He further contended that informing people about government decisions was not part of any propaganda, but the official functioning of the government and something which the public has a right to know about.

Earlier in the day, Chennithala, at a press conference in Pathanamthitta, claimed there was a "major breach of data privacy" behind the seeking of personal details of government employees and officials by the officer on special duty (OSD) in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO).

He claimed that there was a "huge political controversy" behind the move which was carried out with an eye on the upcoming assembly polls in the state.

He claimed that the personal details, including that of owners of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), were sought from the KSMART (Kerala Solutions for Managing Administrative Reformation and Transformation) system and the Service and Payroll Administrative Repository for Kerala (SPARK).

"The details were sought via a letter dated December 31, 2025 issued by the OSD with a direction that the information has to be handed over before February 12.

"This is a major breach of data privacy. Can the OSD issue such a letter without the knowledge or approval of the CM? There is a huge political conspiracy behind it," Chennithala contended.

He further said that using personal details for political campaigning by the CPI(M) and LDF was "illegal" and "undemocratic" and ought not to have been done.

The Congress leader further said that as per the OSD's letter, the details were collected as part of a digitlal communication system -- Centralised notification hub for government services -- that is being launched and for which the Information and Public Relations Department (IPRD) is working.

He said that no government has a right to take personal details of its employees in this manner and demanded that a case be registered against the CM, his OSD and the Chief Secretary of the state for allegedly defending such activities.

"It is shameless and undemocratic to use these personal details to send messages to people, including High Court judges, as part of the election campaign," Chennithala contended.

His remarks come a day after the Kerala High Court observed that the emails and messages allegedly sent by the CMO to officials highlighting the achievements of the state government constituted an intrusion of privacy.

The court's oral observation came while hearing a plea by Dr Rasheed Ahammed, an associate professor at a college in Malappuram, and Anil Kumar K M, a clerical assistant at the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram, who claimed that sending such messages amounts to an election campaign.

The state government undertook before the court not to send similar messages till February 27, the next date of hearing in the matter.

The petitioners have claimed to be aggrieved by a bulk messaging campaign from the CMO, allegedly targeting state government employees and others receiving salaries and benefits under various schemes on the eve of the Assembly elections.

According to them, the messages were sent by accessing private data provided for intimating the credit of monthly salary and benefits. PTI HMP KH