Kochi: The cooperative movement has been a bliss for the ordinary people in Kerala for the last about a century. Cooperative banking has played a significant role in the social and economic life of the state. Poor and middle-income groups people found a saviour in the cooperative banking sector. They got help in constructing their homes, which is their dream, the marriages of their daughters, education of their children, treatment for illness, etc. But, when frauds cropped into that sector it turned grave, fatal and sharp thorn in the flesh for the people who had thrown their hats into it. It was like a face-to-face standoff between themselves and their death.
The bolt from the blue came up in the form of huge loan fraud detected in CPM-ruled Karuvannur Cooperative Service Bank in Irinjalakkuda, Thrissur. It is a heavy embarrassment to CPM since Party has been campaigning against the so-called “Union Government’s intrusion into Kerala’s cooperative sector”.
According to preliminary information, the bank’s secretary and the staff siphoned off more than Rs 100 Cr using the title deeds submitted by the loan applicants. But, V.D. Satheeshan, LoP, Kerala Legislative Assembly, told that it is more than Rs 350 Cr. The case has been registered on the basis of the complaints lodged by K.K Divakaran and Sreekala E.S., bank’s president and secretary in-charge respectively.
Bank has suspended Secretary, Manager and Accountant. Actions are also initiated against…
