The government should publicise the MoU it had drafted and subject it to a public debate instead of showing undue haste to clinch the deal, Rajagopal said.
"The Oommen Chandy government is showing undue haste in the matter. It is not even clear whether the Centre's permission has been obtained for the project to be controlled b a foreign firm," Rajagopal, a former minister of state for defence, said.
Smart City @ Kochi: 100,000 jobs likely
Some of the clauses in the MoU could pose serious threat to national security as the government had virtually agreed to create a "nation within a nation" by extending major concessions to DIC and insulating it from the labour and civic laws, he said.
Instead of rolling out a red carpet to a foreign company, the government should have thought about setting up a state-sponsored or a joint venture project to tap the IT potential of Kochi, he said.
He said he shared the concern expressed by the opposition leader V S Achuthanandan on the issue and his party would chalk out protest programmes against the scheme.
