HYDERABAD: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday wrote to CBSE chairperson Anita Karwal seeking an inquiry into the data breach of students who had appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Neet) earlier this year. Mr Gandhi decided to write to the CBSE after he read several reports on how a website claimed that personal data, including names, phone numbers and email ids of over 2,00,000 candidates, who appeared for CBSE’s Neet this year, were available for a price on some online portals.
The website had listed state-wise data of candidates from Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand. The Congress president sought action from the CBSE and asked the education body to put in place effective safeguards to prevent future breaches.
A screenshot of the post tweeted by Rahul Gandhi.
The letter written to Ms Karwal by Mr Gandhi reads, “I am shocked by this wide-scale theft of personal data that has compromised the privacy of candidates across the country. This highlights the serious lack of safeguards to prevent data breach and class into question the ability of the CBSE to ensure the sanctity of the examination process. I strongly urge you to order an inquiry into this shocking lapse and take action against the officials responsible for the same. In addition, I request you to put in additional safeguards to prevent the recurrence of such data breaches.”
