After Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday signalled the commissioning of Kerala Fiber Optic Network (KFON), an ambitious IT infrastructure project to make internet accessible to everyone, leader of opposition V.D. Satheesan termed it as one of the biggest corrupt deals of the CPI-M led state government.
Satheesan also boycotted the inauguration event.
After the launch, Vijayan said that it is unfortunate that someone of the stature of the Leader of Opposition came out with baseless allegations.
“The opposition is against all forms of development. They are not just against the government, but are also against the people. But development is the agenda of the Left government,” Vijayan said.
KFON promises free internet to two million households besides 30,000 government offices. The project was launched in 2017 and was scheduled to get completed in 18 months.
Satheesan said that it is the second time that Vijayan is inaugurating the KFON project.
“He inaugurated the same project a few years back as well,” Satheesan said.
“The estimated cost of the project was Rs 1,028 crore. But after the tender process was over, it was hiked to Rs 1,531 crore. It was hiked during the tenure of then Principal Secretary M. Sivasankar,” Satheesan said.
Presently, M. Sivasankar is serving his second jail term.
Satheesan said, “It has been six years now, and see how many connections have been provided against what the government had promised. They had envisaged 18 lakh household connections and 30,000 connections for government offices. Have they provided these connections? Moreover, the cables used were imported from China and not what was promised. It is a corrupt deal,” Satheesan said.
At the moment 2,105 homes across the state have been connected while cabling has been finished for 9,000 residential houses. Around 17,000 offices have also been provided internet connection.
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