THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : In a major setback for the state government, President Droupadi Murmu has withheld assent to the Kerala Co-operative Societies Amendment Bill (Milma) 2022. The bill had provisions which allowed voting rights for Kerala Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (KCMMF) administrator during the governing board election. The President decided on the fate of the bill 20 months after it was referred to Governor Arif Mohammed Khan.
This is the second reversal for the government in its fight with the governor. After sitting on eight bills passed by the assembly, Khan had referred seven of them for the President’s consideration, while giving his assent only to the Kerala Public Health Bill, in November last year.
Of the seven bills, the President gave assent only to Kerala Lokayukta Amendment Bill 2022, which curtailed the powers of the watchdog.
The President withheld assent to three of the five University Laws Amendment Bills that seek to replace the governor as the chancellor of state universities.
UDF hopeful of comeback as President withholds nod
The state government approached the Supreme Court when the governor sat on eight bills, in November. “The holding back of the bill is impeding the much-needed reform in conferring the basic democratic right of voting to the primary dairy cooperative societies,” said the government in the petition in the apex court.
However, opposition parties alleged that the amendment was a ploy by the ruling CPM to wrest control of Milma by giving voting rights to the administrator or the representative of the administrative panel.
The UDF, which lost control of Milma’s governing board after being in power for 38 years, is upbeat following the President’s action. It hopes that the board equations will change with the regional unions going for election next year.
The board is formed with elected representatives from the Trivandrum, Ernakulam and Malabar regions, besides department representatives. Currently, the Trivandrum and Malabar regions are controlled by the LDF while the Ernakulam region stands with the UDF. “As per existing law, only presidents of dairy societies have voting rights. But in the recent election, the Left nominees came to power using administrators’ votes. The President has junked the amendment that legalises the vote,” said Kallada Ramesh, former chairman of TRCMPU.
Dairy Development Minister J Chinchu Rani, however, said the President’s decision would not have any impact.