Come Tuesday and entire Telangana State will come to a grinding halt as hundreds of thousands of Government employees will fan out to each and every houses in city, town, village and habitation to collect every bit of data from all the 84 lakh households.
The effect of the run-up to the survey was already being felt as thousands of people working at other places were rushing back to their respective native places to be available to the surveyors. There was unusual rush of passengers at the bus stations and railway stations.
The general holiday announced by the Government will also cover petrol pumps, cinema halls, banks, shops and other establishments. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao announced that not a single RTC bus would operate on that day anywhere in the State. “Everybody should be available at his or her respective homes on the day of the survey,” he told at a Press conference in Hyderabad on Sunday.
To make this one-day Integrated Survey successful, the Government employees, teachers and others on Sunday paid a visit in their respective allotted areas and distributed the slips, explained the copies of documents required and put up stickers on the house to mark their visits.
On Tuesday, a team of two will visit every household to fill in the forms like number of family members, profession and income, caste and educational qualification, aadhar card, pan card, bank account, voters identity card numbers. However, the State Government has given an undertaking to the High Court that details like bank account numbers will not be compulsory. The Government has also circulated the list of various documents copies of which will be collected.
Rejecting all the criticisms and suspicions cast on the survey, the Chief Minister said, “it is not against any body. It is a white lie to say that it was aimed against Andhra people. It is to eradicate ineligible people and identify the eligible people to be covered by the welfare schemes,” he said.
He pointed out that there were 20 lakh more white ration cards than the total number of households in the State. White ration card holders are entitled to subsidised ration, free medical treatment and various other benefits under welfare schemes of the State Government.
The Chief Minister said that massive irregularities in housing programme have also come to light. From a trial run in Nalgonda district a startling fact emerged that wife of a deputy collector, senior Government official was allotted a white ration card. Another Governm-ent staff whose husband was a senior advocate was also in possession of a white ration card.
Though, the Government has set an income limit so only below poverty line families get the white ration card and benefit from the welfare schemes but massive corruption helped even middle class households to get hold of this precious document.
“We have a clear understanding of all the issues and we will not be afraid of any body,” he said while denying Centre had written to his Government a letter on the issue of survey.
Striking a tough note, KCR said, “I will be a Hitler against any injustice to the State”. But he denied calling the Prime Minister Narendra Modi a fascist. “I only criticised his policy,” he said. “If Centre is good we will be good to Centre,” he said.
On the issue of transfer of more powers to the Governor over Hyderabad, KCR said that there was no power, which needs to be transferred to the Governor. “Powers of Governor enshrined in the article 168 of the Constitution have been transferred to him,” he said.