The Tamil Nadu Primary Cooperative Society office-bearers and staff staged a demonstration at the new bus stand here on Monday demanding inquiry into the recent suicides of three salesmen in cooperative shops across the State.
They demanded an inquiry into the suicide of salesmen of society shops in Vannarpettai in Chennai, Kallappal in Tiruvarur and A.Pudupatty in Madurai. Further, two other salesmen had attempted suicide following intimidation by department higher-ups, the protesters alleged.
According to the district secretary of the association S.M. Senthil, the employees are facing intimidation in the name of inspection from across the departments. “Revenue, police, and cooperative department officials conduct inspection and when the stock is found to fall short in weight, fines five times the mandated amount is collected.
However, there is a shortfall in the stated weight of the goods meant for PDS even at the time of delivery to the ration shops,” Mr. Senthil said.
The protesters demanded a proper system be put in place to have the goods measured in the presence of office-bearers and the inspection of PDS outlets be streamlined to a single department.
The Tamil Nadu Primary Cooperative Society has demanded a compensation of Rs. 10 lakh to the families of the three office-bearers who had committed suicide.
