Reliance issue will backfire on UDF: Varghese Kandamkulathi

Thrisssur: The issue recently raised by the opposition UDF on the cable laying works of Reliance and the agreement with the firm would boomerang on them, the deputy mayor Varghese Kandamkulathi said. He added that the allegations presently raised against the ruling LDF were to create a smokescreen to hide the gross mistakes committed in the agreement signed by the Corporation and Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd in 2013 when the UDF was in power.

His response was to the note of disagreement given by the opposition leader of the council, M.K. Mukundan, alleging that the minutes of the council meeting held earlier this month was tampered with by restricting the scope of the investigation into the alleged corruption and maladministration in the agreements. “It is true that in the council all matters regarding the agreement regardless of any time frame was agreed upon unanimously, but, now as the files of the 2013 agreement is the matter of discussion, the minutes were prepared that way. The ruling LDF does not have any problem in inquiring into the deal,” he told DC on Monday.

There were mainly three different phases in the Reliance agreement, the first was the agreement to lay underground cables for 35 kilometers in 2013, the next was the agreement to erect posts and the third one were the two applications of the firm to lay cables in a total of 20 kilometers, in addition to the earlier 35, he noted. “No agreement was signed after the LDF came to power in the Corporation towards the end of 2015. For 35 kilometre work, a restoration charge of Rs 70 lakhs was mentioned in the agreement for opening up portions of the road for laying cables and a yearly rent of Rs 10,000 for one kilometre of cable was agreed upon. These charges could be underrated and we have asked the engineers to check into it,” he said.

If the restoration charges and the rent were found to be less, the Corporation would ask the Company to pay more but obviously they would cite the agreement and refuse to pay more, he pointed out. In that case, the concerned UDF mayor and the secretary would be asked to pay the additional charges, Kandamkulathi said. Fearing this, the opposition had now started raising allegations against the LDF which was presently in power, he said. He added that as there was a lapse in the 2013 agreement as it did not specify any time frame for the works to be conducted, the Corporation has issued a memo to the company to stop the ongoing works and the council would reassess the restoration charges and rent on the new application to lay cables for 20 kilometres submitted in January by Reliance.