Coffee house row: Oommen Chandy slams CITU dominance'

Thrissur: It is up to the CPM and Industries minister A.C. Moideen to introspect whether the alleged unilateral decision taken at the official level to dissolve the Indian Coffee Board Workers’ Union Co-operative Society Managing Committee led by a non-political union named ‘Sahakarana Vedi’ was right, former chief minister Oommen Chandy said. Speaking at the head office of the society at Veliyanoor on Friday, Mr Chandy said that the board founded by CPM’s veteran leader AK Gopalan had won the confidence of the people.  The decision to dissolve the managing committee allegedly to promote the CITU union which has only a few members would be opposed by the people in Kerala, he said.

Chandy was speaking after declaring solidarity with the protesting members of the Vedi at the headoffice of the society on Friday. “The CPM minister from Thrissur and the party need to conduct an inquiry into the protest and the dissolution of the board and take stringent action against the officials of the Co-operation and Industries department, if they have erred,” Mr Chandy said. The workers in Indian Coffee House from Thiruvanathapuram to Thrissur are members of the society and more than 95 per cent of them belong to ‘Sahakarana Vedi’.

The Vedi functionaries allege that even though the High Court had issued a stay over the dissolution of the managing committee by the Industries department, a few days ago, the inspector from the assistant registrar’s office of the Co-operation department at Ayyanthole in Thrissur had entered the office at Veliyanoor by breaking the locked doors and took away the files of the society. The HC will hold the hearing on the complaint by the Vedi workers next week.