Law on coop sector will be amended for flawless functioning: Min

PATHANAMTHITTA: A comprehensive amendment would be made to the law governing the co-operative sector to make its functioning flawlessly, State Minister for Cooperation and Registration V N Vasavan said on Sunday.

Speaking at the concluding session of the State-level 69th All-India Cooperative Week here, Vasavan said the changes would be made to solve the problems in the sector.

For this, the suggestions and opinions of the employees and the cooperative community would be considered, he said.

The Minister said the sector, keeping with the times, should be able to take advantage of modern technology and advance the banking activities.

The co-operative sector works with social commitment to health, agriculture and education and has come forward to help the farmers when privatisation and mergers took place, he said.

Vasavan said isolated incidents of irregularities in the co-operative sector were generalised and propaganda was carried out.

He probably was referring to the Rs 300-crore scam in the Karuvannur Cooperative Bank in Thrissur district.

The Minister said to prevent such irregularities, the State government has devised several projects to integrate information technology with the sector. He said strict action would be taken against employees for serious mistakes and that a cumulative fund of Rs 500 crore was formed to help cooperatives in case of crisis in the future.