DEHRADUN / PATNA: Posting something on social media that is considered “anti-national” could prevent people from obtaining passports and gun licenses in Uttarakhand. Meanwhile, joining a protest or holding a blockade could prevent people from obtaining bank loans, government jobs and a host of other services in Bihar.
However, shortly after the orders, issued by the police chiefs of the respective states, created a controversy, the DGPs of both states said there was “nothing new” in the basic structure of the regulations they were implementing.
At the conclusion of the Police Officers Conference in Dehradun on Tuesday, Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar told a press conference that the police will maintain a database of social media activity that is “anti-national” or “anti-social” to be used. for police verification when someone applies for a passport or gun license. The decision was made at the two-day conference.
A senior Uttarakhand police official told TOI: “The decision will have an impact only on those who post anti-national content that compromises the sovereignty and security of the country and may be a threat to law and order.”
A day before Uttarakhand announced that it is expanding the scope of social media scrutiny, Bihar had decided to keep an eye out for the protests. Bihar DGP SK Singhal’s order, issued on Monday, listed nine services for which police verification is needed: government jobs, employment contracts for government projects, gun licenses, passports, character certificates, gasoline pump licenses and agencies. gas, bank loans, contract work. for government-assisted organizations and any other work for which the police deem verification necessary.
By Thursday, amid a controversy over the rules, police in both states said they were not changing the rules, but were only enforcing them more strictly. In Bihar, ADG Jitendra Kumar said that all the points mentioned in the order are already in practice according to the rules. “… nowhere is the order affecting anyone’s rights to protest.”
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