Opposition Congress intensifies criticism on Kerala govt over AI camera issue, calls it a 'massive scam'

The Congress and the 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 investigate it.

Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly V D 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 the problem was carrying out an honest and proper investigation and placing the findings before the public.

Also read | Congress continues attack on Left govt in Kerala alleging irregularities in AI camera project implementation

"The question is whether the Left government has the courage, the intention or the 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 the Congress was examining legal remedies to the problem.

Satheesan, at a press conference held here, said there was major conspiracy behind preparing a huge estimate of Rs 232 crore for carrying out the project when it could have been implemented much lesser in Rs 70 to Rs 80 crore.

The LoP said the huge estimate given by Keltron was an indication that the government was aware of the intended corruption and allowed it to happen.

He also contended that the terms of tender, which included not subcontracting the 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 the work, including procurement of all technology and completion of associated vendor management, to a Hyderabad-based company which raised a bill of Rs 66 crore for the same.

He said the government can check with the GST department about the bill amount raised by the company and said it was illegal for the 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 property.

Both Congress leaders also claimed that the corruption in the particular matter has reached the doorstep of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan as one of his relatives was involved in it.

"The CM's son's relative is involved in the scam. So, he is a relative of the CM too. Therefore, he (CM) is the main accused in the matter. We are giving him an opportunity to respond to these allegations. He should give an answer," Satheesan said.

He alleged that the CM was trying to bring everything into his family in reference to the allegation that a relative of Vijayan was also involved in the AI camera issue.

Neither the CM nor his office has reacted to these allegations.

While the KPCC chief had on Tuesday warned of massive agitations, like in the case of SilverLine railway plan, against the AI camera project if suitable action was not taken by the government, the LoP said the UDF has decided to lay siege to the Secretariat on May 20 in protest.

"On the second anniversary of this government, we will lay siege to the Secretariat in protest on various issues, including the AI camera," he told reporters.

Senior Congress leader and MLA Ramesh Chennithala had on Tuesday claimed the AI camera project, which should have cost only below Rs 100 crore, was completed at double the cost of Rs 232 crore.

Chennithala and other Congress leaders have been alleging that the Left government had indulged in some irregularities in awarding the tender to SRIT for the setting up of a fully-automated traffic enforcement system.

The Kerala government had in 2020 entered into an agreement with Keltron for the project.

In April this year, Vijayan had inaugurated the 'Safe Kerala' project, which included installation of the AI cameras, envisaged to reduce road accidents and traffic violations in the state.