Kochi: The Kerala High Court here on Friday dismissed opposition leader VD Satheesan’s Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking CBI probe into alleged corruption in LDF government’s K-FON project. A bench headed by Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Syam Kumar VM said that no reason was found to interfere with the project or order CBI probe.
“We see no reason to interfere with the decisions taken by the respondents that are impugned in the writ petition or to interdict the respondents from implementing the project. We also do not think it is necessary to entrust an investigation into the allegations raised by the petitioner to the CBI at this stage. As already noted above, the report of the CAG when it is made available can be scrutinised by the legislature and appropriate action can be taken if necessary,” the Court stated in its order.
In the plea filed in January this year, Satheesan alleged that the government failed to implement the project even after allotting Rs 1500 crore for it.
“Only a few connections were given under the project. Earlier, Rs 1000 crore was allotted for it. Later, an additional amount of Rs 500 crore was granted over a letter issued by M Sivasankaran, former principal secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The whole amount is gone. KSEB, a partner of this project has complained of importing substandard cables from China,” he argued.
He also alleged favouritism in awarding contracts related to the project.
K-FON (Kerala Fibre Optic Network Project Ltd), the flagship project of the Pinarayi Vijayan government was launched on June 5, 2023. The project aims to provide internet connection to 20 lakh poor families in the state for free and to others at affordable rates. The KFON network would also provide internet connectivity to schools, hospitals, government offices and other public institutions.
Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited (KSITIL) which is in charge of the project had announced that 14,000 households would be given the connectivity in the initial phase. As per the data in September 2023, only 4,000 connections have been given even after one year. Meanwhile, the latest reports claim that the company that assigned to complete the work has withdrawn from the contract due to the non-payment of its bills.