States not consulted on data protection frameworks, says BJD MP

State govts have not been consulted on the personal data protection bill as well as the framework for non-personal data protection which may lead to problems in implementation of the proposed law

State governments have not been consulted on the personal data protection bill as well as the framework for non-personal data protection which may lead to problems in implementation of the proposed law, a BJD MP said on Tuesday.

The personal data protection bill is likely to be tabled in Parliament during the upcoming winter session.

"Many times the Centre-state problem is created because of a certain legislation without adequate consultation. It has always led to non-optimal results and non-optimal achievements of the benefits of a particular legislation. I hope this doesn't happen here. The consultation with the states should happen which has not been done with either of the committees. The state level consultation has not happened," BJD MP Amar Patnaik said.

He was speaking at a virtual event organised by industry body IAMAI on the "Impact Assessment of Non-Personal Data Governance Framework" report prepared by EY.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT has held public consultation to prepare draft personal data protection (PDP) bill and framework for non personal data (NPD).

"The legal problem that would arise while implementing NPD, which I also see in the PDP bill, has also been flagged upfront in the report. If there are problems created in the state of law because of legal problems then full fruit of utilising data for benefit of data principles, for the benefit of citizens will not happen," Patnaik said.

He said that even if the bill gets passed in Parliament then also states' consent will be required for framing rules for the better implementation of the act and better utilisation of data.