(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Nearly 400000 government employees teachers and student volunteers began the house-to-house survey at 7am in the city and at 8am in other parts of the state googletag.Hyderabad and indeed the entire state of Telangana wore a deserted look on Tuesday as the state government launched its intensive and exhaustive household survey billed as the first of its kind in the country.
Nearly 400000 government employees teachers and student volunteers began the house-to-house survey at 7am in the city and at 8am in other parts of the state comprising 10 districts to cover over 8.4 million households.
Among the households covered early were those of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu cabinet ministers of the two state governments and senior bureaucrats.
The survey primarily aimed at gathering inputs on the socio-economic status of families residing in the state had attracted criticism from various quarters but the Telangana chief minister made it clear that there was no hidden agenda behind the survey and the only intention was to weed out bogus beneficiaries of government welfare schemes. “We want to ensure that the government benefits reach the target groups” he said.
The survey seeks to build a comprehensive data bank on citizens through the questionnaire seeking various inputs like names age educational qualification profession Adhaar card numbers bank account number property and other details of family members.
In Hyderabad the survey was expected to continue at least till 8pm with about 75000 government employees teachers and student volunteers gathering data of two million citizens in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) jurisdiction.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government had declared a public holiday to enable people to remain at home and participate in the household survey. The usually busy roads in Hyderabad were empty as public transport and even autorickshaws went off the roads.
Government offices educational institutions shops petrol bunks hotels cinema halls and all other business establishments were shutdown as the government issued a warning stating that action would be taken against private institutions if they were found violating the holiday orders. It exempted only emergency services.
Many information technology companies however were open as their managements expressed inability to declare a holiday. The global IT/ITES companies said their employees can still get enumerated as they will be having different shifts.
The government also ordered the Road Transport Corporation (RTC) not to ply a single bus across the state. Autorickshaws also stayed off the roads. People arriving from outside the state at railway stations faced inconvenience. However private cabs operated as usual.
The roads in busy areas like Khairatabad Panjagutta Ameerpet Dilsukhnagar Koti Abids Mehdipatnam and L. B. Nagar were completely deserted. Residents described the situation as unprecedented since even shutdowns called by political parties never evoked such a total response.
Thousands of families residing in Hyderabad also headed to their native places in other parts of Telangana to participate in the survey. Even patients in government-run hospitals took permission to visit their homes for the enumeration.
Irrigation Minister and the chief minister’s nephew T Harish Rao said that despite misinformation spread by vested interests and opposition parties the survey was a huge success with people voluntarily coming forward to participate in it.
“The government wants to know if there are families who need benefits like ration card housing and pension. The database will help us to plan better and ensure that the benefits of the schemes reach the deserving” he said.
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