In a bid to track and block lost and stolen mobile phones in the country, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has launched Sanchar Saathi portal. Users are required to file a police complaint of their mobile phone being stolen before they use the Sanchar Saathi portal anywhere in India.


According to Union telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, 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 was quoted as saying by PTI.


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Sanchar Saathi portal works by essentially blocking a stolen mobile phone and preventing it from being misused by others while it is being tracked. Once a user registers on the platform, their device’s IMEI will be blocked, thus, preventing its misuse. Users can also unblock the device to start using it again from the same portal.


"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 mentioned.


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According to the union minister, 36 lakh mobile connections have been disconnected in India for fraud and simultaneously their WhatsApp account has been blocked.


The Sanchar Saathi facilities have been developed by C-DoT. The technology development arm under the Department of Telecom has been able to add feature to check use of cloned mobile phones across all telecom networks.