Andhra Pradesh

Number of PACS to be reduced

By M. Malleswara Rao

HYDERABAD, FEB.10. The number of primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS) in the State is set to come down to 1,900 from the present 4,500, thanks to reforms.

Most of the PACS have been found incurring losses. A reorganisation effort is on to merge three to four such unviable PACS into one.

It will not be a surprise if three or four villages have one PACS under the new arrangement. The viable PACS, however, are not touched.

The Government is toying with the idea of conducting elections to all the 60,000 cooperatives societies in the State, including these PACS, this summer.

According to official sources, the five-member Cabinet Sub-Committee headed by the Minister for Cooperation, K. Lakshminarayana, has suggested a number of reforms to tone up the cooperatives, especially PACS, based on the recommendations made by the P.V.A. Rama Rao Committee in its report.

The re-organisation, indeed, has been taken up as a pre-requisite of the elections as proposed by the Ministers panel.

Drastic changes

Preparing the ground for polls, the Government has promulgated an ordinance introducing drastic changes to Andhra Pradesh Cooperative Societies Act, one of them to recognise real cultivators as active members and all others as "associate members".

Because of the merger of three or four unviable PACS, the membership of the PACS is expected to fall to a manageable level of 40 lakhs from the present 1.4 crores.

The, ordinance issued recently, recognises only those having holdings as members with voting right but allows others such as weavers, fishermen, etc. as "associate members" who can claim PACS services.

It provides for indirect elections. Active members will elect a board of directors and they, in turn, will elect the president, vice-president and others.

The board of directors can admit a new member but expulsion of any member for misconduct will be by general body.

The ordinance provides for nomination of a minority representative and two women from self-help groups/NGOs but without a voting right.

Change in bylaws

Bylaws of the society can be changed by two-thirds of the quorum (one-tenths of the total strength) instead of by three-fourths of the general body as earlier.

The general body, under the hitherto existing system, consisted of active as well as associate members.

In some cases, the entire village formed the general body as anybody could enrol himself by paying Rs.10 just for the sake of elections.

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