Stage set for survey in Telangana, thousands head home

Thousands of people are returning to their home towns and villages in Telangana as the stage is set for the household survey across the state Tuesday.

People from different parts of the country and Hyderabad are rushing to their native places in the state to get enumerated while the state machinery is geared up for the massive exercise in which nearly four lakh government employees will collect data from 84 lakh households in all 10 districts including Hyderabad.

There was heavy rush at bus and railway stations as families headed to home be present during the visit of the enumerators. The state-owned Road Transport Corporation (RTC) was operating special buses to clear the rush.

People working in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and other states are also returning home as the authorities have made it clear that those who don't participate will lose the benefits they are enjoying under various welfare schemes.

The survey, which will cover nearly four crore population of the state, is said to be the biggest exercise ever undertaken in the country in a single day.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government is going all out for the success of the massive exercise aimed at identifying real beneficiaries of welfare schemes and weeding out the bogus ones. It has allayed apprehensions of people from Andhra Pradesh settled in Hyderabad that the survey is being undertaken to single them out.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao blamed vested interests for spreading rumours, pointing out that there is no nativity column in the survey form.

He said the authentic data would help the government in better planning of the schemes and targeting the real beneficiaries and also to put an end to the massive irregularities going on in implementation of such schemes for decades.

Stressing the need for the survey, the government said that there are 1.07 crore ration cards for 84 lakh households. "Successive governments claimed to have build 55 lakh houses for poor but there are still lakhs of applications for houses," said Information Technology and Panchayat Raj Minister K. Tarakarama Rao.

Telangana will be completely shut Tuesday as the government has declared a public holiday to enable people to be at their homes for the survey. It has warned private companies, shops and business establishments of action for any violation of the orders. The chief minister has made it clear that not a single RTC bus will operate Tuesday.

Clearing the last hurdle for the survey, the Hyderabad High Court Monday dismissed a petition to stay the exercise. During the hearing of a similar petition last week, the government has told the court that the survey is only optional and not compulsory.

In Hyderabad, thousands of enumerators visited different parts of the city Monday to distribute forms and create awareness among people.