Accusing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of attempting to destroy Kerala’s cooperative sector with its “overzealous” actions, the Cooperative Employees’ Coordination Committee, a common platform of various cooperative employees unions, has said that it will go ahead with protest programmes against the continued targeting of the sector.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, the committee office-bearers said that the organisations were not against raids to unearth irregularities or actions based on it, but the ED was attempting to create a smokescreen by alleging corruption in all cooperative banks and attempting to wean the common people away from such banks.
Out of the 16,255 cooperative societies in the State, financial irregularities had been reported only in a handful of cases. Those involved in corruption should be exposed and strong legal action should be taken against them. But the actions of the ED and a section of the media in painting the entire cooperative sector as corrupt is suspicious.
The committee said that those who were targeting the cooperative sector were turning a blind eye towards those who committed massive frauds with the connivance of the employees and management of public sector banks and later escaped from the country. The Chief Minister had made it clear that not even a penny of the money invested in cooperatives had been lost. A special package had been announced for the Karuvannur bank and steps were being taken to refund the investors.
The unions further said that cooperative investment in Kerala had been guaranteed by the Investment Guarantee Board. Lakhs of people in Kerala, including farmers and small traders, depended on the cooperative sector for their livelihood. The ED’s attempts were also part of a covert move to divert investment to multi-state cooperatives by making Kerala’s cooperative sector unsafe. If the cooperative sector broke down, the rural population would have to rely on the private banking sector. The Kerala Cooperative Employees Union (CITU), Kerala Cooperative Employees Front, Cooperative Employees Council (AITUC), Cooperative Employees Centre and the Cooperative Employees Organisation are part of the committee.
