A group of handicapped lottery vendors have urged the junta to allocate them a quota right away because it is impossible for them to sell the tickets at 80 baht each, the price the military has set.
Handicapped lottery vendors cross the street to submit their letter seeking a quota to Gen Prayuth on Tuesday. - APICHART JINAKUL
Their cost is already at 94 baht each since they have to buy the tickets from middlemen.
The vendors submitted a letter to Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha, chief of the National Council for Peace and Order, at the Royal Thai Army Command on Tuesday.
Santisuk Polswing, secretary of the retail handicapped lottery vendor group, said the Government Lottery Office had told handicapped vendors on Dec 20, 2013 to register for an allotment of the tickets directly from the office.
They registered with the office during Jan 2-6, 2014 and 98,000 of them were qualified.
The qualified vendors are promised the first quota for the March 16, 2014 tickets at the price of 74 baht each.
However, up until now, they have yet to receive any tickets. This has forced them to buy from middlemen at 94 baht each like before.
"We handicapped people have been deceived time and again. That's why we submit the letter to Gen Prayuth today for the allocation of three booklets each to 98,000 of us who have been qualified, as well as to members of 18,000 organisations for the handicapped, starting from the July 16, 2014 tickets," said Mr Santisuk.
In the long run, he urged an entire revamp of the allocation system to prevent the tickets going to a single group of people.
"At present, the tickets do not reach sellers, even after quota allocation through a website. Those who get the quotas are people in uniform who sell them to middlemen," he said.
"We have no choice but to buy from middlemen at high prices. So it's impossible for us to sell at 80 baht each."
Commenting on the lost 700,000 tickets, he said because of the incident, almost none of the remaining tickets could be sold because people were not sure they were the lost lot which had been cancelled.