CM Pinarayi Vijayan conveys angst, anguish to Narendra Modi

Thiruvananthapuram: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declined to meet the all-party delegation from Kerala, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan urged him to provide immediate relief to the account holders of the co-operative banks.
In a letter to Modi, the chief minister urged him to allow every account holder of the co-operative structure, including primary and district co-operative banks the same currency withdrawal rights ('24,000 per week as of now) on par with account holders of commercial banks.  “I am directing my finance minister to approach Shri. Arun Jaitley Ji with a detailed status report on the above lines,’’ he said.

The chief minister said Assembly had authorised an all-party delegation to convey the state’s concerns and explore possibilities of finding solutions. “Turning down of our request has come as a real shock for all of us here. I am writing this letter to convey our concern on the issue and the anguish of about 19 million co-operators and legislators of the state,” he said. Pinarayi said there was serious human rights violation in imposing curbs on the co-operative banks.

“The disbursement of monthly welfare pension to 44 lakh widows, elderly, cancer patients and most vulnerable groups of people who receive financial support through the primary co-operative institutions has come to a standstill. He said efforts were on to put in place robust computerised systems to integrate the district co-operative banks’ operations through core banking solutions. Most of these banks have their networks of ATMs which operate on RuPay Cards making them on par with any other commercial bank. Pinarayi said the district co-operative banks had implemented the tax deductions at source from large depositors as warranted under the Income Tax regulations.

In his letter, the chief minister personally assured the prime minister on the following aspects: (i) the district co-operative banks operate in a transparent environment reporting their financials to RBI on a regular and timely basis; (ii) fortify the already foolproof membership admission and management processes with the KYC requirements; (iii) closely follow up the audit processes with Reserve Bank of India augmenting the internal audit mechanisms, audit by the registrar of co-operatives as well as the social audit by the general bodies enshrined in the Kerala Co-operative Act; and (iv) furnishing any requested information to the Income Tax authorities.