Five more petitions filed against ordinance

KOCHI: Five more petitions have been filed before the Kerala High Court challenging the Cooperative Societies Ordinance-2012.    The ordinance is aimed at dissolving board of directors of district cooperative banks and appointing administrators to manage the affairs of the banks.The petitions were filed by State Cooperative Bank president M Mehaboob and presidents of Alappuzha, Thrissur, Pathanamthitta and Kozhikode district cooperative banks. The hearing of the petitions will continue on Wednesday. The board of directors of the state cooperative banks consist of representatives of each district cooperative bank. According to the petition filed by Kollam District Cooperative Bank president P Rajagopalan Nair and two former members of the director board, the ordinance was illegal and arbitrary. They alleged that it was brought with a mala fide intention to topple the existing director boards of the banks and put them under the control of the UDF government. “All primary societies and urban cooperative banks have been given voting rights in the district cooperative banks. “The new ordinance is against the High Court order upholding the previous LDF government’s decision to allot voting right to primary cooperative societies except agricultural credit societies and urban cooperative banks,” the petitioners submitted.