Mahamitra app withdrawn, Chavan questions move

Mumbai: Days after former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan claimed that the State government’s Mahamitra mobile application shares users’ information with a private charitable trust, the app was withdrawn from the Google Play Store on Monday.

“Why was the application withdrawn suddenly? Who authorised the withdrawal? Was it removed by Google or was it DGIPR,” Mr. Chavan said in a press note.

The Congress leader alleged that the government is using the DGIPR to collect data. “The data was sent to Anulom, a charitable trust. Was it done with the knowledge of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, since the DGIPR functions under him? In view of the app being taken off, I demand that the CM explain his role in this dubious exercise.”

The government’s publicity department had launched the Mahamitra app on February 1, and it was used to spread information about government programmes and schemes through social media influencers. On March 27, Mr. Chavan had raised the issue of data safety in the Assembly.

The former CM said Anulom was set up in 2016. “The founder of Anulom Trust, Atul Waze, said he had established it under the guidance of Mr. Fadnavis. This sudden suspicious withdrawal of Mahamitra from the Google Play Store indicates that the government has got cold feet. It vindicates my press statement issued earlier,” Mr. Chavan said.

Responding to a query on the withdrawal, Brijesh Singh, director general, information and public relations, Maharashtra, said, “This was just a utility-based application put in place for the particular event. Once the event is over, it is not of any use to us. In the past, whenever events got over, we had withdrawn such apps. There is no question of withdrawing it otherwise.”