Sanchar Saathi Portal: Now track, block your lost mobile phones

New Delhi: People will be now able to block and track their lost or stolen mobile phones across India via the Sanchar Saathi portal launched by the Department of Telecom on Tuesday.

Union telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that through Sanchar Saathi Portal, people will be able to block, track and check the genuineness of a used device before buying them. "First leg of Sanchar Saathi portal is CEIR (Central Equipment Identity Register). If you lose your mobile phone, then you can visit this portal. There will be some identity verification, requirement of undertaking and immediately after this the portal will interact with law enforcement agencies and telecom service providers and block your lost mobile phone," Vaishnaw said.

He said that Prime Minister has a clear vision that a lot of attention needs to be paid to user safety and the facilities under Sanchar Saathi portal are aligned to his vision. When asked about measures that the government is taking to check fraud through calls on WhatsApp, the minister said that Meta owned app has agreed to deactivate services linked to any mobile phone number engaged in fraudulent activities. "We have actively engaged with WhatsApp and they have agreed that customer safety is most important.

All the OTT platforms are actively cooperating to deregister the users which have been detected as fraud users," Vaishnaw said. He said that 36 lakh mobile connections have been disconnected for fraud and simultaneously their WhatsApp account has been blocked. The minister said that there is Know Your Mobile facility Sanchar Saathi which help users verify genuineness of second-hand mobile phone before buying them.