Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The residents of Bhopal may take a sigh of relief in case their mobile phone is either lost or stolen, the reason being the recent implementation of the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) by the Union government. Now, mobile phones, if lost or stolen, will not be misused by anyone as the SIM cards inserted into them shall be deemed unauthorised, once the report of the stolen/lost mobile phone has been lodged in the CEIR.
Owing to the implementation of the CEIR, the city’s lost cell phone unit has ceased operations and provided training to all the police personnel of Bhopal with regard to the CEIR. The CEIR has proven to be a beneficial initiative as a majority of mobile phones, which are stolen, are not recovered. Even if they are recovered, the rate of recovery is quite low, which puts the private data of thousands at risk.
How CEIR works?
Once a person loses his/her mobile phone, they must submit a written complaint to the cyber cell and also obtain its PDF copy to upload it on the CEIR portal along with one of their identity proofs and the bill of the device. After the complaint is successfully lodged on the CEIR portal, the case is transferred to the cyber cell of the district concerned. The cyber cell blocks access to SIM cards on the lost/stolen phone and in case another person inserts a different SIM card into it, still they will not be able to access the network.
2,500 cops given training
City cyber crime cell assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Sujeet Tiwari told Free Press that close to 2,500 police personnel of Bhopal have been provided training with regard to the CEIR and it is going to be a hard time for the mobile phone thieves.
Bhopalites lost 3,410 mobile phones so far this year
According to the data sourced from the city cyber cell, a total of 3,410 mobile phones have either been lost or had been stolen. The cyber cell had managed to recover just 453 of them to return them to their rightful owners.
