Kerala High Court to hear Coffee House plea today

Thrissur: Kerala Congress (M) general secretary Joseph M. Puthussery has come down heavily on the CPM's decision to dissolve democratically elected managing committee of Indian Coffee Board Workers’ Union Co-operative Society led by a non-political group of workers named ‘Sahakarana Vedi’. Speaking at the southern region head office of the society that runs Indian Coffee Houses from Thiruvananthapuram to Thrissur, here on Sunday, he said the unilateral move of the industries department citing financial mismanagement was condemnable.

“The LDF government is a committing grave mistakes one after the other,” he added. Meanwhile, the High Court will be taking up the petition filed by the dissolved committee members for hearing on Monday. Its secretary S. S. Anil said they moved the HC on February 27 after they were informed about the dissolution on February 25. “HC had ordered for status quo, but defying such an order, on March 18, breaking six locks of the office, senior co-operative inspector S. Bindu of industries department entered the headquarters at Veliyannoor and took away several files. Then the officials of the department informed the HC that administrator had taken over charge on February 25,” he said.

Even though the inspector visited the office several times, she could not take over the charge owing to protests by workers. The society has nearly 2,400 employees who draw a salary between Rs 12,000 and Rs 40,000. Only 50 of them belong to the CITU, and the rest are with the Vedi. He alleged that CITU unit in Thrissur was behind the unilateral dissolution of the committee to gain prominence in the society, which is under industries department. CITU and the industries department are yet to give an official clarification.