KOCHI: Mayor Soumini Jain on Wednesday said a ‘caucus’ was working in the Kochi Corporation to support private telecom companies in their bid to dig up roads illegally.
“There is a caucus supporting telecom companies. With their support, most of the illegal road digging is taking place in the city,” Jain told reporters after the opposition walked out of the council meet alleging corruption in allowing the digging up of roads, particularly the digging up of Lalan road near Mattanchery by telecom major Bharti Airtel the other day.
“The company had submitted an application to dig up 18 km of roads across the city. Since the rate needed to be fixed, the file was forwarded to the standing committee.
The committee recommended imposing the earlier fixed amount. But the file was not referred to the council afterwards. Meanwhile, the corporation officers served a notice to the company without our knowledge. This is a serious lapse,” she said.She said an explanation has been sought from the corporation secretary on May 2 in this regard.
“The involvement of civic body officers will be probed. We are also planning to blacklist Bharti Airtel for illegal digging up of roads,” Jain said.Airtel officers were unavailable for comment.