Thrissur: Functionaries of the South Kerala Indian Coffee Board Worker’s Co-operative Society who got a favourable order from the High Court could not take over charge of their office here on Friday as the manager of the District Industries Center (DIC) did not turn up at the office to implement the court order. On Thursday, the court quashed the order of the Industries department to dissolve the democratically elected governing committee of the society and handed over the administration to a caretaker. Several workers and functionaries had come to the office of the society here at Veliyannur and waited till afternoon.
Secretary of the dissolved managing body S S Anil told DC that they would wait till Tuesday and if the DIC manager was not ready to act as per the High Court order and give the elected body of workers the power to run the Coffee House in South Kerala, they would move the HC for contempt of court. “We did not get any intimation yet on reassuming charge. The copy of the court order is yet to be received and we hope that after getting it, the manager will turn up at the office either on Saturday or Monday. The elected committee has a term of five years (of which three years are over) as per the amendment of the Kerala Co-operative rules in 2013,” he said.
“We did not have any union since 1958 when the society was formed. But a year ago, CITU formed a union with the backing of nearly 50 workers. The decision of the state government to dissolve the elected managing body of the society citing false charges of financial misappropriation and nepotism was done at instance of CITU with the intention of controlling the society,” Anil added. The society had a turnover of Rs 121 crore last financial year and kept aside Rs 32 lakh after paying salary and other benefits of all the 2,500 workers, he said. A worker at the entry-level gets a salary of Rs 13,000 and the managers get Rs 45,000 excluding the bonus and other benefits, Anil noted.
