THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Signalling an end to the long wait, the KSRTC pensioners will get their pension along with the pending dues from Thursday, according to Cooperation Minister Kadakampally Surendran. The disbursal of pensions will be completed by this month end, he said.A consortium of Cooperative Societies will provide `219 crore as pension and dues this month. Under the plan, the 39,045 pensioners will get the money through 701 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS). But for this, they need to open an account in the cooperative banks located nearer to the banks where the pensioners already hold pension accounts.
The Kerala State Cooperative Bank which leads the consortium of cooperative banks will credit the money to the new account. The minister said steps had been taken to facilitate the opening of accounts in cooperative banks. According to Surendran, 198 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies had come forward to lend money to the consortium. But the consortium decided to collect `250 crore from 24 societies in four districts. Fourteen societies in Kozhikode will lend `140 crore, four from Ernakulam will give `50 crore, three each from Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram will give `30 crore each.
Kadakampally said the money given by societies were secured through a government guarantee. Hence, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala’s claim the consortium will wreck the cooperative societies was baseless and it exposed the double standards he had on the pension issue. “The fact the cooperative societies were able to collect the amount and disburse it showed the strength of cooperative sector in the state,” he said .
Cooperative Department secretary P Venugopal said the loan amount will be returned on time with 10 per cent interest. The meeting was attended by Cooperative Registrar D Sajith Babu, Kerala State Cooperative Bank MD E Devadas, joint registrars, general managers of District Cooperative Banks and PACS presidents.