The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Union government were trying to destroy Kerala’s cooperative sector, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala has alleged.
Mr. Chennithala was inaugurating a State camp of the Kerala Cooperative Employees Front at the Mar Thoma Youth Centre at Adoor on Saturday.
The cooperative sector has been the backbone of Kerala’s rural economy for quite a long time and the Centre was trying to destroy it, he alleged. Mr. Chennithala said the support of the cooperative sector to the State’s agro-industrial sectors was immense. The liberal and transparent policies of the cooperative sector had always been a great relief and support to the common people and the Centre’s attempt to destroy it should be thwarted, he said.
He alleged that the BJP leaders were unleashing a baseless propaganda against the cooperative societies, portraying them as dens of black money. But, the Kerala society very well knew that the clients at these primary cooperative banks were none other than the common people, he said.
He called for extending the rights given to the urban banks to all primary cooperative institutions too, with a view to protecting the State’s cooperative sector. Mr. Chennithala further alleged that the State government move to constitute the proposed Kerala Bank was also detrimental to the State’s cooperative sector.
He said the United Democratic Front meeting scheduled for November 21 would decide whether to go in for a joint movement against the Centre’s anti-cooperative sector policy. The Leader of the Opposition alleged that the entire country was reeling under the Tuglaq-model reforms of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Congress would launch a nationwide mass movement against such alleged anti-people policies of the Modi government, he said.
