The NDA government has put another ambitious project, conceptualised during UPA’s time, on fast track. The Union Home Ministry has expedited the Central Monitoring System (CMS) — a centralised system to tap phones and also mine through text messages, social media conversations and Internet activities. The project, being implemented by the Department of Telecommunications, is lagging by six months. Sources said the project was also facing a fund crunch and the government has now decided to plug in the gaps. “It has been decided that CMS will be put on fast track. It will have two monitoring stations and it will virtually rule out unauthorised call interceptions through private telephone operators,” said a senior home ministry official.
