New Delhi, Jan. 10: The Centre is considering a proposal to amend the Indian Telegraph Act to make phone-tapping more difficult in the wake of the allegations levelled by the Samajwadi Party.

The home department is likely to hold meetings with private telephone operators, officials of the ministries of telecom and law and intelligence agencies.

The government feels that tapping is more difficult if the operator is a state-owned company like BSNL or MTNL as red tape ensures that the procedure for eavesdropping is even more tedious than that laid down by the law.

“If BSNL and MTNL were providing the sevices, we could have easily apprehended the culprit. Now that the business has moved to private hands, it is better to regulate operations of telecom companies,” Union law minister H.R. Bhardwaj was quoted as saying by a television channel.

It is not clear what Bhardwaj meant by “regulation” because private telecom companies are already governed by rules that disallow unauthorised tapping.

The telecom watchdog also waded in today, saying it would seek information from telecom companies whether they are following rules.

“When there are so many complaints? we shall ask companies ‘please tell us whether you are meeting the requirements’,” a member of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, D.P.S. Seth, told PTI.

Bhardwaj favoured changes in the law, but said his department would take up the matter only after the information technology ministry or the telecommunications ministry raise the issue.

“Tapping is not a difficult thing at the local exchange level of private telephone operators, especially when forged documents are there. This can be negated by putting in place a cross-checking mechanism for permission letters and imposing stringent punishment like cancellation of licence of the operator,” an official said.