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Union minister questions Kerala government’s decision to purchase Chinese cables for its K-FON project
NEW DELHI: Raising suspicion and concerns over the newly inaugurated Kerala Fibre Optics Network (K-FON) project by the Kerala government, Union minister of State for Electronics and Telecommunications, Rajeev Chandrasekhar has questioned the government over the use of Chinese-origin optic fibre in the project.
The union minister made the remarks while attending a function on ‘9 years of digitisation’ and stated that India has many fibre optic plants and why does the Kerala government require the purchase of optic fibre from China.
“They didn’t require importing from China, and this (optical fibre) is a domestically available product. Many plants in India manufacture optical fibre. Why did they need to import from China? What was the pressure? What was the reason?” the Union minister asked.
As per reports, the optical fibre used in the K-FON project is imported from China. Hence, it is violating Central government regulations, which mandate importing telecom devices designated as “trusted products” from “trusted sources”.
“We are not against any country, nor are we particularly against the source of the product. But there is one framework in the country – a trusted source. It means equipment and its source should be trusted, wherever they are from. There is nothing against one particular country,” said the minister.
The Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON) is a ₹1611-crore project and a joint venture of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) and Kerala State IIT Infrastructure Limited. The main intention of the project is to provide internet connectivity at a relatively low cost to the state and also ensure free internet for BPL families.
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Following the face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh in 2020, the government came up with a national security directive on the telecom sector wherein telecom service providers will have to use devices that are designated as “trusted products” from “trusted sources”.
The government has deployed the National Cyber Security Coordinator as the designated authority for determining a vendor or product.
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