No change in government stand on Data Centre row: Chandy

Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan said he was ready to face any probe in the matter

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy today said the government would go ahead with its decision to hand over to the CBI the probe into alleged irregularities in the deal to transfer state-owned Data Centre to Reliance Group.

"The state government will inform the Supreme Court, where a case in this regard is pending, that there is no reconsideration of its earlier decision to hand over the case to CBI," Chandy said during the weekly cabinet briefing here.

The case is slated to come up before the Apex Court on October 7, he added.

Reacting to the development, Opposition leader and former Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, during whose rule the Data Centre was transferred, said he was ready to face any probe in the matter.

"I am a person who is ready to face any probe unlike the present Chief Minister Chandy, whose Office had been allegedly linked to solar scam," he told reporters.

A controversy erupted over the issue after a section in Congress and government chief whip P C George alleged that there was a move to backtrack on the government decision to hand over the case to CBI.

The Data Centre, associated with state-owned State Data Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), was handed over to Reliance Communications in 2009.

The issue has ignited a row ever since the Data Centre, maintaining sensitive data on the state, was transferred to Reliance, terming it a big security risk.