Kerala: Cong's Chennithala alleges corruption in AI camera purchase deals

Thiruvananthapuram, April 23 Senior Congress leader and former Leader of Opposition in Kerala, Ramesh Chennithala has alleged "huge corruption and irregularities" in buying and installing Artificial Intelligence (AI) backed CCTVs to curb traffic violations in the state.

Kerala Transport Department has set up AI-enabled CCTV cameras to spot traffic violators and impose fines on them. It was part of the state government's Safe Kerala project.

However, this has been into rough weather after the opposition Congress came up with allegations that huge corruption had taken place in the deal in awarding sub-contracts to companies that were not equipped to set up such cameras.

Chennithala, also the former Home Minister of the state, alleged that huge corruption had taken place in the deal to award contracts and sub contracts by the state government Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation (Keltron)

The senior Congress leader alleged that the state government had entered a contract with the Keltron in 2020 to set up a fully automated traffic enforcement system to curb traffic violations and to impose fines on those who were violating the traffic rules.

Chennithala said that Keltron then awarded a sub-contract to a Bengaluru-based company, SRIT India Pvt Ltd, in violation of the tender norms and charged that "the company does not have any experience in handling such projects".

He also alleged that SRIT India Pvt Ltd then entered a sub-contract with two Kerala-based companies, Light Master Lighting India Ltd, in Nalanchira, Thiruvananthapuram and Rasadio Technologies Private Ltd at Malaparamba in Kozhikode.

He said that "both these companies were not at all experienced in handling these projects".

The senior Congress leader said that Rs 151.22 crore was allocated for the project. Chennithala asked "whether any other companies had participated in the tender, and if the contract has been awarded based on the tender process". He called upon the Keltron management to answer the questions.

He also alleged that later the amount for the tender was jacked up to Rs 232 crore.

The senior Congress leader also said that the cameras were only Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) based, and not AI cameras, as claimed by the state transport department and the state government.

Ramesh Chennithala said that if the government does not disclose details on this issue in the next few days, he would bring out more facts.

Keltron Managing Director, Narayana Murthy, however, denied the allegations levelled by Ramesh Chennithala.

He said that the five year operational cost was Rs 232 crore and its contract with SRIT was to assist in the construction of the posts and installation of cameras.

He also clarified that SRIT had given sub-contracts, and that Keltron was not in any way involved in this.

State transport minister, Antony Raju told media persons that the idea behind the project was to bring down road accidents due to traffic violations and resultant deaths.

He also said that the project was directly dealt by Keltron and not the transport department and hence Keltron had to answer the allegations.

aal/pgh