The Congress party-led opposition UDF bloc on Wednesday stepped up their attack on the ruling Left front in Kerala over the Artificial Intelligence (AI) camera issue by terming it as a “massive scam” and questioning whether the LDF Government has the “spine” to honestly probe it.
Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly VD Satheesan and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K Sudhakaran alleged that the AI camera project was a huge scam for which the way was paved by the state government and Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (Keltron).
Sudhakaran, also an MP, said the only solution to problem was carrying out an honest and proper investigation and placing findings before public.”The question is whether Left government has courage, the intention or spine to do that. They have to clearly say what they intend to do,” he said while speaking to reporters at Kannur and added that Congress was examining legal remedies to problem. Satheesan, at a press conference held here, said there was major conspiracy behind preparing a huge estimate of `232 crore for carrying out project when it could have been implemented much lesser in `70 to `80 crore. The LoP said huge estimate given by Keltron was an indication that government was aware of intended corruption and allowed it to happen.
He also contended that the terms of tender, which included not subcontracting entire work, were violated by SRIT — a Bengaluru-based company that was granted the contract for the project — with the full knowledge of Keltron.
Satheesan further alleged that SRIT subcontracted work, including procurement of all technology and completion of associated vendor management, to a Hyderabad-based company which raised a bill of `66 crore for the same. He said the government can check with GST department about bill amount raised by company and said it was illegal for state administration to procure materials at a lower cost and sell them to a public sector enterprise at double the price.
The Congress leader also claimed that the subcontracting was done without prior information to Keltron. The LoP also said since the project was to be implemented on Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) basis, then the government has to clarify whether the cameras are public or private.