Nizamabad: Leaders, officials sell memberships of fishermen societies

Nizamabad: The Fisheries department provides benefits to fishermen by giving them the co-operative society membership if they have the expertise in swimming and fishing.

But in Nizamabad and Kamareddy districts, it has been revealed lately that thousands of people have been granted membership without any eligibility tests.

It is reported that some leaders and officials have been accused of illegally collecting thousands of rupees from fake members and giving them membership.

Fake memberships have now become a hot topic in the Fisheries department. There is an ongoing debate over who gave the fake memberships.

Telangana State Election Authority issued a notification to hold elections for the latest Fisheries Cooperative Societies. How many people have membership? Who else is eligible? Now the facts are about to be revealed.

The Fisheries Elections Authority has issued a statement to hold elections to unions that have completed five-year terms.

The new governing bodies will be elected to all the unions in the two districts in a phased manner. It is then proposed to send directors to the district committee. A total of 75 Fishermen Societies in Nizamabad district and 30 Cooperative Societies in Kamareddy district have completed their terms.

The voter list will be officially released before the elections. Will there be the names of fake voters on the voters list? May be?

The issue is how to regulate informal co-oparative society members is of interest. Workers are waiting to see how the authorities deal with this.

The government is implementing several welfare schemes for the development of fishermen. The government provides fish seeds free to the members of the society. All members earn income after fish seeds develop into fish. The fishing industry is supplying equipment, two wheelers and four wheelers on a huge subsidy under the Fisheries Integrated Development Scheme.

Accident insurance provides up to Rs 2 lakh to the workers. These benefits apply only if the membership in Fishermen Cooperate Society.

Some disqualified members are also eager to join the society. Some leaders took this opportunity make money. Leaders and officers charged from Rs 2,000 to 3,000 from each and make them members of the society without any test.

It is reported that about 5,000 ineligible people are included in the erstwhile Nizamabad district.

It is alleged that a former officer who worked in the Armor area collected approximately Rs two lakh this way.

The eligible will benefit from membership. There are 249 Fisheries Industrial Co-operative Societies in Nizamabad district. According to official figures, there are 16,826 members.

According to the new estimates, there will be 19,000.

Notification for the election to the 54 fishermen societies have been issued and so the scramble for getting the membership of the fishermen societies. Only investigation can reveal how many are genuine fishermen and know swimming and fishing.