Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan on Wednesday dared Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to deny the accusation that his close relative benefited hugely from the alleged corruption in the Keltron-sponsored automated traffic offence detection system installed across the State at an “exaggerated” cost of ₹232 crore.
However, at a keenly watched public meeting near here to celebrate the second anniversary of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, Mr.Vijayan broadly accused the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of blindly opposing development projects by jointly promoting a misinformation campaign built on lies and slander. He, however, steered clear of answering any specific accusations raised by the Opposition.
Agitation threat
Mr. Satheesan warned that the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) would unleash aggressive anti-corruption protests if the government desisted from ordering a judicial inquiry into the “mammoth fiscal fraud and criminality”. He said the “Keltron traffic camera corruption” knocked at Mr. Vijayan’s door.
Signalling the start of a season of anti-government agitations, Indian Union Muslim Youth League workers staged a protest in front of the Kozhikode office of a “politically connected” private firm allegedly profiting from the “corrupt deal”.
Later in Kannur, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K. Sudhakaran alleged that the government routinely used a Communist Party of India (Marxist)-controlled labour cooperative as a front to channelise public works and government infrastructure development contracts to “paper companies” owned by close relatives of party leaders via the subcontracting and consortium formation route.
Cartel and rigging
Mr. Satheesan said the Keltron project smacked of bid rigging and cartel formation. He alleged that Keltron grossly exaggerated the acquisition and installation cost of the Artificial Intelligence-enabled traffic enforcement system and pegged it at a ludicrously high price of ₹232 crore. The government could execute the project at a cost of not more than ₹80 crore.
Mr. Satheesan alleged that Keltron invited tenders and allowed the bidders to form a consortium to bag the contract and share the spoils by further subcontracting the work violating tender norms. Keltron bent tender pre-qualification criteria to award the project to companies favoured by the current disposition.
Mr. Satheesan said Keltron turned a blind eye to contractual violations, including sub-contracting the work to hastily formed companies with no domain expertise. It overlooked the fact that none of the bidders were original equipment manufacturers. They procured the systems at a far lower rate from outside suppliers only to slap a higher bill on the government to squeeze profits.
As per GST filings, Mr. Satheesan said, Keltron had paid the consortium only ₹66 crore for implementing the project. The government should reveal where the rest of the ₹232 crores went. Moreover, Keltron conceived the scheme as a Build Own Operate and Transfer project. Hence, the private consortium owned the systems rather than the public, despite taxpayer funding for the project. Mr. Satheesan said corruption had cost the public an estimated ₹160 crore.
