Survey fever grips city

Stage is set for the 'Intensive Household Survey'. Government has roped in one lakh personnel (enumerators) from different departments including college lecturers, teachers, junior assistants, etc.

Detailing about the survey, Chief Minister KCR said, “The government wants to gather some facts about every household in the state to implement target-oriented welfare schemes for various sections of people. But it is not mandatory for citizens to disclose all their details such as bank account number, during the survey.”

According to the government of Telangana, the survey is mainly to find out who deserves various support schemes of the state, so that wasteful expenditure could be prevented.

"If the information is going to be used for its intended purpose, there is nothing as good as this. And if it is going to be used only for political gains, nothing is going to be as worse," said Koushik Reddy, a small-time builder who has projects in the fast-developing Gachibowli suburbs.

Some are not willing to part with their bank account details. George Andrews, who recently retired as a supervisor from a major state-run electrical company in Hyderabad, says he and his friends have decided not to provide any information about their bank accounts.

"It is not that I have something to hide about my accounts," Andrews said. "But I’m not convinced about why they require that information." Andrews, who is originally from Tamil Nadu, said most of his friends were settlers from Seemandhra.

Pre-visits ensured no home was left untouched
Following the pre-visit-I at Navodaya Colony, Gudimalkapur, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner Somesh Kumar announced the successful completion of the first phase of the pre-visits.

“Hyderabad is a huge city with high population density. For this purpose, pre-visit-I was arranged. These pre-visits are to ensure that houses and areas are not left out,” the Commissioner said.

The population has increased considerably since the 2011 census and this survey would record present day figures of the population of Telangana.

“The pre-visits took place in all 150 Wards of the GHMC. In the pre-visit-I one enumerator was deployed for each census enumeration block. Enumerators were provided with booklets, pamphlets, check slips and stickers for the pre-visit,” he added.

If any house or area was missed out by an enumerator or if a sticker was not pasted, information could be passed through the 24x7 call centre 040-21111111 and a complaint could be registered with the address of the area so that the GHMC would arrange for an enumerator immediately.

“On Sunday 3,300 calls were received by the GHMC call centre regarding the survey, of which 150 calls complained about enumerators not visiting houses. These complaints have been redressed and would be looked upon,” he said.

Count and identify child labour in the survey
Meanwhile, the Balala Hakkula Sangham has demanded counting the number of children and identifying those who were going to work instead of school in urban and rural sectors. According to juvenile law, children below 14 years of age and those who were not going to schools were to be treated as child labour.

Anuradha, president of Balala Hakkula Sangham said, “If the number of child labourers is counted, it would be helpful for the government agencies and activists who can take measures to eradicate child labour and also can make an action plan to make child labour illegal in society.”

She appealed to the enumerators that while taking the information from the public, they should concentrate on the children in the age group of 6-14, whether they were attending the school or not. “Apart from this, enumerators should count the ailing children with different types of illness and specify the illness and cause,” she added.

Photo copy stalls does brisk business
The photocopiers in the city were seen doing brisk business on Monday. From photocopies of Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, PAN card, driving licence to property papers, the more the sheets to photocopy, the more money it meant for the shop owners.

A photocopy-cum-stationery shop owner at Abids, Shravan Bajpai, who’s been in the business for over 25 years, says survey has given a push to their business. "Not just Aadhaar, passport, election ID and photo copy of documents attached with it, there are property papers, pan cards, birth certificates, and the list goes on.”

Another shop owner, Peter, says, "We are doing brisk business after the High Court gave a go ahead to the survey.” However, Murlidhar whose shop at Old City is almost 20 years old, hopes to rake in the moolah on the survey day when people will have some emergency. His photocopy shop is at his residence. “On Sunday when the survey started people required some documents at the last minute... we had great business,” he says.

People were seen searching for the most common items that have missed the 'must bring' list for the survey like clips, fevicol, pins, etc.

People who were travelling to other districts have taken photo copies and left the originals in Hyderabad though they are not natives of some other districts. One aged couple brought 60 documents and took five sets.

Some people from Andhra were upset and abused KCR, stating he was putting the innocent public to trouble just to drive them away from Telangana. “For the last eight days I have not gone to office and getting all the required documents in place. I got all my papers verified by a lawyer and went an extra mile getting the papers notarised,” says Raju Chowdary who was standing in a photo copy booth with two of his friends.

But convenience comes with a price. For photocopies, the rate is often Re 1 per page and laser jet print on A4 size paper is Rs 10. Rates have been revised upwards. Sudden increase in the demand for photocopy of documents has prompted the outlets to increase the rate from Re 1 per page to as high as Rs 3.

Internet cafes also did brisk business as a few members of the family in other countries were sending their documents via email.

Unprecedented rush at bus and railway stations
Jubilee Bus Stand, Secunderabad, saw unprecedented rush on Monday due to the mega survey. People arrived from Mumbai, Sholapur and other parts of Maharashtra by the Konark Express and Hyderabad Express to be available for the survey.

Sreenivas and his wife, who are working as construction labourers in Mumbai from the past five years said that their family members and their relatives comprising of more than 15 members had arrived by the Konark Express.

“We paid huge bucks to the travel agent and in the end we had to travel in the general compartment. We spent a sleepless night in the train and have suffered enough. There was no chance even to go to the toilet as it was also completely occupied by passengers,” he said.

“We are leaving to Warangal, our native place. We are forced to spend more than Rs 10,000 to reach our native place and be available for the survey. Likewise, more than 50 families belonging to the region travelled with us on the Konark Express from Mumbai and left to their native places,” he added.

Ravi, a bus depot manger, said that they deployed 150 buses on Sunday and 200 buses on Monday to various districts to clear the unprecedented rush in addition to the regular services.

“We are making an effort to clear the passengers till late in the night, so that they can reach their hometowns on Tuesday,” he added.