Congress claims corruption in purchase of laptops under Safe Kerala project

After raising allegations of large-scale corruption by the ruling Left government in the state in the procurement and installation of artificial intelligence (AI) cameras under the Safe Kerala initiative, the opposition Congress on Monday claimed irregularities in purchase of laptops under the same project.

Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, who had first raised the issue of corruption in connection with the AI cameras, claimed that laptops for the project were purchased for more than three times what they would have actually cost.

Chennithala claimed that laptops with specifications stipulated under the project contract would have cost only around Rs 57,000 per machine.

However, the 358 laptops required for the project were bought for Rs 1.48 lakh per machine for a total of over Rs five crore, he contended while speaking to reporters here.

The Congress leader also alleged that the same private company which was involved in the installation of the AI cameras was the one beh