Kochi: Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan on Friday approached the Kerala High Court with a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the state government’s Kerala Fibre Optic Network (K-Fon) project.
In the pet project, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan promised free internet for two million households besides 30,000 government offices. Launched in 2017 with a completion period of 18 months, it was to be done through a new optic fibre pathway created in parallel to the electric power network of the Kerala State Electricity Board Ltd. (KSEB).
Satheesan alleged that the project and all contracts arising from it were divided among proxies of the people controlling the government.
He claimed that all the tenders involved in the project have been awarded to a single beneficiary company which is closely connected with persons in power.
Satheesan also said that the said company has allegedly re-routed the work and financial benefits involved to another company which is associated with the same person in power.
“It is clear that a project which would have been a milestone for the digital accessibility in the Ssate has been handed over to incompetent persons, who have ruined it for making profit at the expense of the common man,” he said in his petition.
Incidentally this is Satheesan’s second PIL against the Vijayan government, with the previous one in the Safe Kerala project involving the installation of AI (artificial intelligence) traffic cameras.
Satheesan has also sought an order for quashing the Government Order issued by the state Electronics and IT Department which sanctioned selection of K-Fon’s implementation agency, M/s Bel Consortium.
Inside and outside the Assembly, Satheesan said that the project cost of K-Fon was pegged at Rs 1,028 crore and after the tender process was over, it was hiked to Rs 1,531 crore. Satheesan then alleged that there is a cartel in Kerala that has the blessings of Vijayan which gets all such deals and surprisingly these are companies which have no prior experience also.
He has all along been alleging that all ‘roads’ of corrupt dealings finally leads to one firm – Presadio Technologies, in which close family members of Vijayan are involved.
–IANS