The government will take punitive action against those who are spreading negative propaganda against biometric SIM registration, State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim has said.
The junior minister made the statement after a meeting on biometric SIM registration at the secretariat yesterday.
A Supreme Court lawyer recently served a legal notice urging the government to halt biometric registration for SIM cards, claiming that it violates the privacy of users.
Foyzur Rahman Chowdhury, secretary of posts and telecommunications division, said the people who are involved in negative propaganda against biometric SIM registration would be identified soon.
Mobile operators are not preserving finger print in any level as they have no technology to do so.
CIP Police Super Rezaul Haider said finger print is a binary digital code that cannot be used in any criminal activities; it’s only possible in movies.
The junior minister said if this biometric SIM registration goes in vain the mobile operators would be happy as their SIM sale has come down drastically.
A vested quarter is campaigning against it to foil this initiative. If our project is successful extortion, criminal activities and illegal VoIP would be totally stopped.
TIM Nurul Kabir said mobile operators have invested crores of taka to complete this task in greater interest of the country. They cannot be involved in such propaganda.
The government launched the mandatory biometric SIM/RIUM registration on December 16, 2015.
All biometric SIM registration processes must be completed by March, or else, mobile operators have to face a US$50 penalty against each unverified SIM, an official of BTRC told the Dhaka Tribune.
According to the latest BTRC statistics, there are 13.19 crore active mobile phone subscribers in Bangladesh.
