Palakkad: The cooperative scams, which hit banner headlines with Karuvannur bank scam in Irinjalakuda, continue to create headache for the ruling CPM in the State with the Kannadi Service Cooperative bank in Palakkad district being the latest at the centre of a controversy over money swindling.
The CPM inquiry commission has recommended action against a prominent leader of the party, a director board member of the bank, on charge of diverting loan amounts of customers to his personal bank account. It is estimated that more than Rs 1 crore has been swindled by the leader in this way.
In Karuvannur, the investors' money had been diverted for personal use by the director board members and officials. In the Kannadi bank, the loan amount of the members were diverted to the bank account of a director board member.
Building rule violated
It has also come to light that the bank has been functioning at the newly constructed building without getting building licence from the Kannadi Panchayat.
Three floors were constructed illegally though the panchayat had given only permission for building two floors. It was also alleged that enough distance was not kept from the road for the new building. No safety measures suggested by the Fireforce Department have been put in place.
Serious allegations were also raised with regard to the construction cost of the new building. The earlier estimate of Rs.15 crore was escalated to Rs 3 crore without any justification.
But the grapevine is that those who had opposed the irregularities were later won over by those who helmed corruption in the bank, by granting them sub-contracts for construction work.
