West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee during a press conference. File/PTI
Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday strongly opposed the central government's move to make linking of mobile number to Aadhaar card mandatory and said she will not provide her Aadhaar number to the telecom operator even if her connection was barred.
"This is a tactics of the Center to interfere into people's privacy. I think, we should not provide Aadhaar number to the mobile companies," she said during her party's extended core committee meeting here.
"If we do not have a mobile connection for that, so be it. I challenge that I will not provide my Aadhaar number even if my connection is stopped. I don't care."
Terming the move a breach of people's right to privacy, the Trinamool Congress supremo said the central government was trying to intrude into people's personal life and curb their freedom.
"Aadhaar might be necessary in banks for security reasons. But they are asking for Aadhaar number for mobile phone connections as well," Banerjee said here.
"This means even a private conversation between a husband and a wife is going to be tapped. People's right to privacy has been taken away. The government has no right to get access to all our private information. What are they going to do next?" she asked.
The Department of Telecommunications in March this year directed all mobile phone service providers to re-verify existing customers, prepaid and postpaid, using their unique Aadhaar identity number and biometric details.
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