Most of us depend on Google Maps whenever we are at an unknown location. Maps users find it quite helpful but the Indian Government has a different take on it as they find it unreliable.
India’s mapping and survey organisation, Survey of India (SoI), declared Google Maps and Google Earth “unreliable”, “not authenticated” and “un-approved” and wants people to stop relying on these applications.Surveyor General of India, Swarna Subba Rao, at an event on the occasion of 250thanniversary of Survey of India in New Delhi, said to IANS, “If you talk about the authentication, the Google Maps is not authenticated. It hasn’t been produced by the government, so they aren’t authenticated”.
He further added, “If you are using Google Maps to reach a restaurant or park, even if you reach 50 meters close to that place, you are happy. But when we have to put a new railway line or a make canals, that is where our topographic maps come in, when you require very accurate, engineering quality data.”
A senior Survey of Indiaofficial told IANS, the government did not have control over the information that applications likeGoogle MapsorGoogle Earth.”There should be some controls, but the fact is that government doesn’t have any restrictions or control over the applications likeGoogle Earthor Maps,” he said.
This isn’t the first time internet search engine Google has been found faulty by the country. Previously, Google Earth showed Jammu & Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as ‘disputed territories’ and did not mention them as a part of the country.
Survey of India (SoI) has recently taken initiative to make its maps and surveys accessible to the Indian citizens free of cost.