The Union Government has asked private telecom operators in Jammu and Kashmir to provide at the earliest a mechanism for fool-proof monitoring of Internet traffic to the State, especially through smart phones.

This was conveyed to telecom operators after the Department of Telecom found that monitoring equipment of at least two operators – Vodafone and Aircel – allegedly did not comply with standards, thus creating problems for the security agencies, official sources said on Sunday.

The security agencies want to monitor Internet traffic in the border State especially as rumours are floated and incendiarypictures posted on the Web, the sources said.

Vodafone declined to comment whereas Aircel said, “We comply with the norms which have been laid by the Government and followed by all ISPs. Before starting our services, the Government has inspected and certified us to start this service.”

However, in a note prepared by Director (Access Service) P. C. Sharma, it was mentioned that while other telecom operators in Jammu and Kashmir had provided complete monitoring solutions to Internet, especially on mobile phones, Vodafone and Aircel “had not complied with the requirements of installation of mobile Internet traffic monitoring.”

The note was submitted to Home Ministry for further action as deemed fit, the sources said, adding the security agencies had remarked that it was difficult to get real-time information from some of the telecom operators leading to failure of some the operations.

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