Minister for Cooperation C.N. Balakrishnan said in Kozhikode on Monday that more women must be enrolled in cooperative societies for the cooperative movement to achieve its expected goals in the State.
He was speaking after inaugurating a mass contact programme organised to address the complaints of cooperative societies in the district. Mr. Balakrishnan said the participation of people from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities too should be improved. The government had already appointed a committee to study the reasons behind the low participation of women and SC/ST communities in the movement. Steps would be initiated once the committee submitted its report.
The government had already started political and legal measures to settle the complaints of cooperative societies on income tax remittance. He said primary cooperative societies were also facing problems because of strict monitoring of investment by people.
Stressing the role of cooperative societies, Mr. Balakrishnan said it was time to act more dynamically to keep at bay illegal financial firms. “Such enterprises seem to be staging a comeback,” he said. Explaining the purpose of mass contact programme in the cooperative sector, the Minister said the complaints received in the programme would be addressed within a month. Complainants would get satisfactory response from the department, he added. The Ministeralso received complaints from participants.
