Thiruvananthapuram, March 27 (IANS)

The Kerala unit of the BJP has alleged that major graft has taken place in the prestigious Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON) project of the state government. BJP Kerala spokesperson, Sandeep Vachaspathi in a statement said that the ruling  CPM and Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society is making huge money through the Chief Minister’s pet project.

He said that the state government had given the contract to a private company at a rate of Rs 40,000 per km. The BJP leader said that this was huge money as generally in the state one kilometer of cable lying is charged at Rs 8000 to Rs 10,000.

Sandeep while speaking to IANS said, “ This is nepotism and corruption at the highest level. It is against norms that the agency that won the contract sublet the work to another company.”

The BJP leader said that the claims made by the Kerala government regarding KFONE were not true and added that if the work goes by this pace, it would take another three more years to implement the project.

He also alleged that a former IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre hailing from Kerala who was a senior leader of Kamal Haasan’s political party is now heading the Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure

( KSITIL), the state government PSU that is piloting the KFON project and added that after his advent several procedural violations had taken place.