Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Minister calls for stringent laws

Special Correspondent

To root out graft in Cooperation Department

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Minister for Cooperation G. Sudhakaran on Wednesday called for more stringent laws to root out corruption in the Cooperation Department.

Addressing a district-level seminar organised by the State Cooperative Union to herald the Sixth Cooperative Congress, he said corruption was a deep-rooted malaise in the department. “The situation is very bad in banks and other institutions under the department. Crores of rupees are lost to corruption,” he said.

The Minister stressed the need to strengthen the audit and vigilance mechanisms to tackle corruption. He said the Left Democratic Front Government had disbanded 27 cooperative societies because of corruption, inefficiency or lack of quorum. There is no move to stifle the functioning of cooperative institutions. The Government, he said, was committed to maintaining the democratic nature of the cooperative movement.

Mr. Sudhakaran said moves were on to promote a consortium of primary cooperative societies to set up a network of cooperative clinical laboratories at the panchayat level. “The project will be implemented with the cooperation of the Health Department,” he said.

Mr. Sudhakaran underlined the need for financial discipline, diversification and professionalism in cooperative institutions.

Earlier inaugurating the seminar, Communist Party of India (Marxist) State Secretary and the former Cooperation Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the cooperative sector was exposed to the negative influence of the forces of globalisation. He said the move to hand over control of the credit cooperatives to the Reserve Bank of India and make income tax deductions from cooperative banks were part of the pro-globalisation policies of the Union Government. Such reforms will affect the cooperative sector in the long run, he said.

Mr. Vijayan said the credit cooperatives in Kerala had freed a large section of people, including farmers, from exploitation by moneylenders. Pointing out that unpaid loans were becoming a big problem, he said the cooperative sector should try to extend help to the needy. He proposed flexible repayment terms to discourage default on loans. He also recommended a revision of the loan ceiling.

Mr. Vijayan called for effective intervention by the cooperative sector to strengthen the marketing sector. Mr. Vijayan emphasised the need for cooperative institutions to utilise frontline technology and adopt new marketing practices to take on powerful rivals including foreign players. President of the Kerala State Cooperative Bank Kadakampally Surendran and president of the District Cooperative Bank N. Bhasurangan were present at the inaugural function.

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