MUFAP Seeks Special Revision Of Voter Lists Before Cooperative Elections

VIJAYAWADA: Muslim United Front Andhra Pradesh (MUFAP) president Mohammed Kaleem has urged the Guntur district election officer-cum-collector to ensure that voter lists for cooperative society elections are prepared only after a special intensive revision (SIR) to identify and remove duplicate entries.

He said the state government was preparing to conduct elections to cooperative societies governed by the Andhra Pradesh Cooperative Societies Act, 1964. Cooperative department officials had begun preparations following government directions, as the terms of the elected governing bodies had ended nearly eight years ago, he pointed out.

Kaleem said the prescribed reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and women must be implemented in the governing bodies of cooperative societies. He stressed the need for a thorough revision of voter lists, particularly to identify people registered in more than one cooperative society.

He said some people might be registered as voters in Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) in rural areas as well as cooperative banks in urban areas. Such duplicate registrations should be identified and removed from the electoral rolls by the cooperative department, he said.

He urged senior officials to sensitise employees involved in election preparations and issue clear instructions to ensure that the process was conducted transparently, impartially and in accordance with the prescribed rules.