Kerala minister warns action against 'erring' officials

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 9  Kerala's Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala on Sunday said tough action will be taken against officials found guilty of leaking to media information about a probe into an IT project that has incurred losses.

Reports surfaced last week that around Rs.2 crore had been wasted over an allegedly flawed IT project.

A senior police officer told police chief T.P. Senkumar that he suspected that the news about a probe into the IT project was leaked to media.

Inspector General of Police Manoj Abraham approached Senkumar against his junior and Superintendent of Police Rahul Nair for allegedly leaking information about the probe to the media, sources in the police said.

Enraged over the development, Chennithala told IANS that irresponsible behaviour would not be tolerated in a disciplined force.

"A detailed probe is currently on and it includes not only the IT project, but also if there is any purposeful act on the part of police officials to play truant. We are waiting for the report," said Chennithala.

"... tough action will be taken against those who have erred," he added.

The home minister said the IT project was implemented in the 2012-13 fiscal during which he was not the minister.

Last week, Chennithala ordered a Crime Branch probe into the Kerala Police IT project, which was handed over to a now closed Bengaluru-based IT firm. The project has incurred a loss of around Rs.2 crore.

The IT project was part of a police modernisation drive for an electronic beat monitoring system in seven districts.

The company failed to complete the job in the stipulated two year duration.