Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Allegations disproved: Minister

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Minister for Cooperation G. Sudhakaran said here on Friday that the High Court verdict on a number of petitions challenging the election to the Kerala State Cooperative Hospital Complex and Centre for Advanced Medical Services at Pariyaram had disproved the Opposition’s allegations about irregularities in the election.

The Court had upheld the election rejecting the contentions of the former president of the cooperative M.V. Raghavan and others who filed the petitions, the Minister said in a statement issued here.

Mr. Sudhakaran said of the 484 members of the cooperative, 376 had been issued identity cards for the elections and 240 persons had cast their votes.

Mr. Raghavan and Congress leader K. Sudhakaran had tried to disrupt the polling. Mr. Raghavan had got only 23 votes, and his contention of bogus voting had been rejected by the Court. The Minister said the functioning of the medical college under the cooperative had improved after the new governing council took charge.

He had been nominated as chairman of the council. The verdict was a victory for the cooperators, the council, the government, LDF and the CPI(M).

Seeking the cooperation of Mr. Raghavan and others in the smooth functioning of the college, the Minister said no vindictive action would be taken against Mr. Raghavan. Scrutiny of irregularities that had taken place in the past would be done in an objective manner. He said the college now had a liability of Rs.400 crore. It was running at an annual loss of Rs.8 crore. The cooperative medical colleges (in Kochi and Pariyaram) could be run without increasing the fee, if the government sanctioned Rs.10 crore.

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