Following instructions by the State’s Information Technology (IT) department to all other departments to ask their staff to use the Arogya Setu mobile application, the Higher Education department has instructed the staff of all tertiary educational institutions to download the application.
The Arogya Setu application, designed by the Centre, is being promoted as an important tool in the fight against COVID-19, primarily for contact tracing. However, organisations such as the Internet Freedom Foundation and Software Freedom Law Centre have raised concerns over privacy issues.
In a letter, the Higher Education Secretary asked all universities and regional heads in the department to appoint nodal officers to ensure compliance and send status reports daily. This is based on an earlier letter sent by the Additional Chief Secretary of IT department to other departments, setting a target to take the number of users of this application in Tamil Nadu to at least 50 lakh.
Consequently, the Director of Collegiate Education issued a circular on Friday to all Regional Joint Directors of Collegiate Education and principals of government colleges asking the staff of all government, aided and self-financing colleges to download the application. Urging the officials to treat the circular as “most important”, the circular sought college-wise comprehensive reports, on a daily basis, on the number of staff who have downloaded the application.
