Loans not repaid, 13 lakh farmers lose right to vote

Thirteen lakh members of Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) have lost their vote rights after the government made it a condition that members who have not cleared `1 lakh loan and failed to pay the share capital will not have the right to vote and will lose their right to contest the elections.

According to officials in the cooperative department, there are 32,99,088 voters in the 905 PACSs, and as many as 13,98,257 have lost their right to vote and contest as they had not repaid their dues. With this, the strength of the voters has come down to 19,00,83. The nominations for the elections commenced on Thursday.

As a majority of the members have lost their voting and contesting rights, Opposition parties are accusing the ruling TRS of taking over the PACSs by disqualifying the huge number of voters.

Telangana Kisan Congress chairman Anvesh Reddy alleged that the ruling party imposed the condition being well aware that many of the farmers who are voters in the PACSs are not in a position to repay the `1 lakh loan.