I’ll be Hitler to stop illegalities: KCR

• Rs 20 crore-Mega Survey to ensure benefits reach poor
• Asks people to elicit details without fear and not to believe ‘wrong propaganda’

Hyderabad: Facing severe criticism from opponents for launching mega survey, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday said he was not ashamed to be called ‘Hitler’. He said he would like to be Hitler and, if need be, worse than him to stop illegalities.

Rao made these remarks at a press conference on Sunday here while defending the decision of his government to conduct a comprehensive household survey on August 19. He said that government had decided to spend Rs 20 crore on the survey to ensure that the benefits it proposes reach the needy and poor.

He said, the new State was forced to take up such a survey because of the misrule of the previous government in the undivided Andhra Pradesh.

Calling upon people to participate in the survey, he said it would help people in getting the benefits of pensions and other such welfare schemes.

Replying to questions, he said, though there were columns like bank account number, it was not mandatory for the people to disclose it.

But the idea behind seeking this information was to link the welfare schemes to bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

Rao said the survey was an important exercise and people should participate in it.

He also denied that there was any scope of any agency selling the data for commercial use by corporate or companies.

The entire data would be online and accessible to all, where was the question of anyone selling the data, he said.

He further said that a section of media and some political parties were creating apprehensions among the people that the survey was to weed out people from AP. He called upon the people not to believe such "wrong propaganda."