The intensive Telangana household survey by K Chandrasekhar Rao government seems to have had a mixed response even as the state was in a standstill trying to forge co-operation for the survey. The survey is billed as the first exercise of its kind anywhere in the country and aims to know the social and economic status of nearly four crore people across Telangana state in a single day. The government clarified that by collecting the information it wants to identify real beneficiaries of welfare schemes and weed out the bogus ones. The survey was intended to ascertain the details of an estimated 84 lakh families living in the state.
The state government has allocated Rs 20 crore for survey of 10 districts.
?This survey is an eye opener for the government to bring out welfare policies and reaches the right beneficiaries,?? K Chandrasekhar Rao, chief minister of Telangana, told the media. He claimed that the survey met with 88% success in Hyderabad and nearly 95% in the districts. The data is expected to be compiled in the next 15 days. He also requested other state governments to follow a similar type of survey and maintain statistics for the development of their respective states.
The government brushed aside all criticism by the Opposition and allegations that it is aimed at singling out people from Andhra Pradesh living in Hyderabad. However, critics point out that the government failed to send out forms for the survey which resulted in only 50% of the total exercise getting completed in some areas in Hyderabad. ?While the intention of the government to check on actual beneficiaries is well-placed, it should have been planned better both in terms of collection and storage of data,?? said a political
analyst.
The collectors appointed over 3.69 lakh employees as enumerators to do household survey and made arrangements for their training at mandal levels. The survey began with enumerators going door-to-door to gather information like names, age, educational qualification, profession, Aadhar card numbers, bank account number, property and other details of the family members. Normal life came to a complete halt across Telangana as the government declared a holiday to enable people to remain at home and participate in the survey.
