The News Minute | January 8, 2015 | 12.00 pm ISTCochin Corporation council has temporarily withdrawn the permission granted to Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) to lay optical fibre cables in the city for 4G services.Following media reports on irregularities in granting permission to Reliance, the council on Wednesday decided to withdraw the permission temporarily.In a heated session of the council on Wednesday, the opposition accused the council of charging Rs. 1922 per metre for laying cables on BMBC roads under the corporation. These are old rates, and the opposition insisted that according to the rules above Rs.3500 can be charged per metre.With the opposition alleging that the council will lose crores of money, and with allegations that corporation had reduced the rates to help Reliance., a decision was taken to withdraw the permission.Last year when Reliance had approached the Kochi Corporation for permission, the corporation had decided to charge below Rs 100 per metre. But later following strong criticism over this rate, Reliance had resubmitted the application on December 23, 2014.Earlier also this deal had been in controversy when Cochin Mayor Tony Chemmany said in November that Reliance had started its work in the city without corporation’s permission.He had told media that Cochin corporation had not issued any sanction for laying cables. Meanwhile RJIL said that corporation granted permission to lay cables along a 106-km stretch in December 2013.