The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has said it does not have any document on the agreement to provide free WiFi service at Park Street in south Kolkata. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched the service in the first week of February. It was announced that the service would be free to start with.
In reply to a question under the Right to Information Act, a copy of which is with The Hindu , the Municipal Secretary’s Department said: “There is nothing mentioned in the papers of this department in this regard.” The enquiry was filed by Prasenjit Bose, an economist, earlier affiliated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
According to the minutes of a KMC meeting, dated February 18, attached to the reply, it was proposed that service providers be permitted to start the work before signing an agreement with the KMC.
The work included installation of micro-cells and access points on streetlight poles. “The work is to be started immediately, and the service providers are allowed to execute the agreement with the KMC later on,” the minutes said. The permission was valid only for the roads maintained by the KMC.
The minutes were given in response to the question about the “facilities and concessions” given by the government and the KMC to Reliance Jio
However, the KMC did not provide any document relating to the other questions raised by Mr. Bose on how long the service would remain free and whether it was a public-private partnership project.
