Kochi: The Pinarayi Vijayan government suffered a major setback in the Kerala High Court on Tuesday when a division bench questioned the propriety of the state government entering into a data handling deal with an American company without the knowledge of the law department.
The opposition had created a storm over what they described as the ‘underhand’ deal, and suspected the involvement of a company owned by the daughter of CM Pinarayi Vijayan with the deal.
But the CM has been maintaining a silence on the plea his current focus was only the fight against virus. He attributed the opposition’s allegations to an intolerance on their part to the exemplary success of the state government in containing the outbreak pandemic.
He insists the services of the US company was hired when the state needed to urgently handle the health data of numerous people being sent to confinement and observation. The deal has been justified on the ground extraordinary situations demanded extra - ordinary responses and the priority was to stop the virus’s spread and save lives.
