Sir — Regardless of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s attempts to downplay the consequences of the survey his Government has conducted to identify the people of Telangana, there is little doubt that the information gathered could be dynamite in the wrong hands and has the potential to be misused to the serious detriment of settlers from Andhra regions. During the agitations preceding the bifurcation of the erstwhile unified Andhra Pradesh, there were demands amid reported intimidation that such settlers should sell away their assets and go back.
The reported statement of the Chief Minister that the houses of those surveyed will be distinctively identified with stickers, has created great anxiety, as this could be a basis for anti-social elements, ostensibly espousing the cause of Telangana, to trouble such residents.
It is a pity that the survey was allowed to proceed with mere assurances, when there is no real guarantee that the details gathered will not be misused. Going by his statements and attitude so far, the Chief Minister’s professed intent over this survey may not allay the apprehensions that the Andhra settlers in Telangana harbour.