BJP demands White Paper on cooperative bank scam

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] of plundering ₹5,000 crore from the cooperative banking sector and demanded that the government bring out a White Paper on it.

At a press conference here on Friday, P.K. Krishnadas, member of the BJP national executive committee, said the LDF government had ruined the State’s cooperative sector in the past 10 years.

District cooperative banks, which used to be the lifeline for primary cooperative societies in crisis situations, were merged into Kerala Bank. The CPI(M) has been using cooperative banks to expand the party and the deposits made by the poor in rural areas were diverted to fund party activities and to line the pockets of its own leaders, Mr. Krishnadas said.

Karuvannur case

He accused the CPI(M) of using cooperative banks to launder black money and said that Karuvannur bank fraud was the biggest ever cooperative sector scam in the country.

Mr. Krishnadas said a commission deputed by the BJP had determined the amount defrauded by the CPI(M) from cooperative banks to be ₹5,000 crore and from the Karuvannur bank alone, ₹328 crore had been swindled. The public did not trust the cooperative sector because of this corruption, he added.

“Destroying the cooperative sector and bringing Kerala’s economy to the brink of ruin have to be the biggest administrative successes of that LDF government,” Mr. Krishnadas said.