Nizamabad: Default farmers names deleted from voter list

Nizamabad: The officials abstaining some farmers from voting in the cooperative elections due to non-payment of loans, led to severe criticism.

There are 144 primary co-operative societies in Nizamabad district with 2,77,388 members. At first the officials had announced that 2,15,838 members has right to vote. But recently the officials deleted a few names, saying that they had to repay loans.

Repayment of about Rs 140 crores long-term loans is in pending in the joint district. The Nizamabad District Cooperative Central Bank (NDCCB) officials on January 31 informed the farmers, who neglected paying the instalments, to pay the amount on February 1, without giving a thought how they can pay the amount in just one day.

Most of the farmers failed to pay the amount. The officials decided to announce the cooperative voters' list on February 3 without the defaulters' names.

These farmers became ineligible to contest and also to exercise their vote. It was felt that it would have been better if the officials gave at least five days time to pay the amount.

Farmers will elect the governing body of the cooperative society, which gives them short and long term loans. Apart from taking loans, farmers will purchase seeds, fertilisers etc. The farmers have to pay in instalments towards the loan they took either to purchase tractors or for mortgage loans.

But this year, farmers didn't paid the instalments as the government promised to waive off crop loans below Rs one lakh. Even the cooperative society officials also didn't focus on instalments due to the government's assurance of loan waiver.

Taking the farmers, who didn't pay long term loans, into consideration, the officials declared that only 92,955 out of the total 1,24,648 members in the cooperative societies in the joint Nizamabad district, are eligible for voting till February 1. The officials also said this is not the final list and there are chances for the number either to increase or decrease. The final list will be released on February 3, on which the cooperative society election notification will be released. But yet the reservations are not finalised.

There will be 13 directors in each cooperative society. Of this, one SC woman, one OC woman and one each from ST and SC General will be elected. The remaining seven directors will be elected from general category. Reservations could be finalised only when there is a clarity about the position of the voters of each category. The officials couldn't complete the process even after working hard.

55 gazetted officers were appointed as the election officer for the 55 societies for conducting the elections, along with another six members as reserve.

This time the voting will be conducted through ballot system. The officials are preparing photo voter list to identify the voters, but still the voters has to show the regular voter card to cast their vote.