THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a bid to put up a united front against Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) intervention in the cooperative sector, the Congress, CPM, CPI and Muslim League have formed a common platform called the Cooperative Employees Coordination Committee.
In a joint press conference organised in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, the office-bearers of the committee said they would organise strong protests against ED intervention.
Kerala Cooperative Employees Congress (INTUC), Kerala Cooperative Employees Union (CITU), Cooperative Employees Council (AITUC) and Cooperative Employees Organisation are part of the newly formed coordination committee.
It alleged that in the disguise of corruption charges, the ED is trying to destabilise and destroy the cooperative sector to help private players and multi-state cooperative institutions.
“Life of lakhs of farmers and small-scale merchants are dependent on cooperative societies. The actions of ED have only created anxiety in their minds. This is part of an attempt to destroy the base of the cooperative sector and self-sufficiency. There is also a bid to create an impression that the cooperative sector in the state is not deposit-safe, and attract deposits to multi-state cooperative institutions,” the committee said.
The committee also said that it does not approve of any type of corruption in cooperative banks. “Of the 16,225 cooperative societies, corruption was reported only in a few,” it said.
The committee also selected N K Ramachandran (CITU) as convenor, Ambakattu Suresh (INTUC) and Ponpara Koyakutty (Muslim League) as joint convenors and V M Anil (AITUC) as vice-chairman.