Thiruvananthapuram: More details on the alleged shady deals of the controversial Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based surveillance project of the Kerala Government have emerged.
James Palamuttem, the Chairman of Lyte Master Lighting India, the second firm which withdrew from the project, said that commission was demanded at the government level to be part of the project.
Incidentally, the company disassociated from the project citing lack of transparency after receiving an order to purchase equipment worth Rs 75 crore, said James.
“We learnt about the commission to be paid to government officials during discussions with Ramjith, the Managing Director of Presadio Technologies, which was supposed to carry out the civil work and installation of equipment,” said James.
“Ramjith indicated that the project was crucial to ensure a victory for the government in the upcoming Assembly elections in 2021,” he added.
“I do not wish to reveal the political involvement in the deal. There have been threats after these disclosures,” said the Chairman.
In a curious aspect of the deal, SRIT - the company which won the tender to implement the project - never contacted his firm, said James.
These disclosures were made by Lyte Master in a letter to the state’s Principal Secretary (Industries).
According to this communication, Lyte Master later came to know that instead of civil works and installation, Presadio was engaged only in coordination regarding the project.
Initially, Presadio had identified another firm, Al-Hind Group, to purchase equipment and when it backed off, Lyte Master was approached. Lyte Master was contacted by a Keralite businessperson who had close ties with Presadio, said the letter. Apart from the purchase order of Rs 75 crore, Lyte Master was offered a 40 per cent share of the profit from the Rs 151.23-crore project. According to the deal, the remaining 60 percent share of the profit was to go to Presadio.
As part of meeting its obligations, Lyte Master gave a sample for a camera from Secura Technologies, Chennai. However, Presadio insisted that the equipment should be sourced only from a company named Trois Infotech.
At this stage, the banks which had offered credit to Lyte Master to implement the project advised the company to withdraw from the deal as it lacked transparency. By this time, Lyte Master had spent Rs 85 lakh for the project, including Rs 20 lakh given to Presadio, said the letter.
“After disassociating from the camera deal, we could not function in Kerala and Lyte Master’s office in Thiruvananthapuram was shut,” said James.
The AI camera-based road surveillance project is under scrutiny over graft and high project costs. The role of the Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation (Keltron) which had inked the pact with the State Government too has come under a cloud as it outsourced the work to seven private companies violating norms.
As reported earlier the Motor Vehicles Department had entrusted the project to Keltron, which in turn, passed it on to Bengaluru-based company called SRIT. SRIT, which lacked the technical expertise to take part in the tender, co-opted Trois Infotech and Mediatronix. The tender that was won in this way was later subcontracted to Presadio Technologies. Presadio took on board the Al-Hind Group of Kozhikode, and when it withdrew from the project, the former joined hands with Lyte Master of Thiruvananthapuram and eventually, decided to work with e-Centric Solutions when the second company too withdrew.
The project is formally known as the Safe Kerala Project.
