Thiruvananthapuram: Protests erupt within the Left Front regarding the government’s cooperative reforms and policies. It is widely criticised that the government is adopting a negative stance towards cooperative employees and primary cooperative societies. 

The latest allegation is that the Finance Department is putting curbs on the disbursal of the dearness allowance announced for government employees to cooperative employees. The Cooperative Employees Union, affiliated with the CPM, initially declared an open protest against this issue but later withdrew following a party directive. The union clarified that the protest was withdrawn after assurances that the Finance Department would take an immediate decision on the matter.

The Employees Union has been a strong supporter of the CPM during the formation of the Kerala Bank. However, dissatisfaction has grown after the government granted Kerala Bank the independent authority to decide interest rates on deposits. Currently, the interest rate offered by Kerala Bank is aligned with the rates provided by primary cooperative societies and banks.

This move, the union alleges, has led to deposit outflows and financial challenges for primary cooperative societies. The previous practice of offering an additional 0.5% interest on deposits in Kerala Bank, which benefited primary cooperatives and banks, has been discontinued. The union is now calling for open protests against these decisions.

The union has also protested against Kerala Bank's policy of reducing the interest rate on provident fund (PF) contributions of primary cooperative employees. Earlier, the government had stipulated that PF contributions should earn interest at the rate determined by the Central PF Board. However, this changed after the formation of Kerala Bank.

Additionally, since a separate PF trust has not been formed, tax exemptions on PF contributions are not available. Despite repeated appeals to the government and the party, no action has been taken.

The union also alleges that the government and MILMA (Kerala Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation) have adopted policies that have left dairy cooperatives and employees struggling to survive. Though it was suggested that MILMA should allocate 10% of the price paid to cooperative societies for milk as procurement expenses, this has not been implemented.

Even after three rounds of salary revisions, not all employees have benefited. Public holidays and government-funded benefits in dairy cooperatives have also been curtailed. These issues have caused deep dissatisfaction among cooperative employees who are members of the union.