Hyderabad: Fear stalk the minds of people from outside the state that the Telangana government survey to be held on August 19 is a precursor to denying them benefits they were entitled to so far. Mostly people from Seemandhra fear they could be discriminated against.
The government is pushing ahead with the Rs 20-crore day-long exercise despite concerns about its legality and feasibility. The government has declared a public holiday so people are available to provide information.
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Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao claims that the survey needs to be conducted to ensure that welfare schemes are not misused, as the new state has more ration cards than its below-the-poverty-line population.Â
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But KCR’s Telangana agitation had been studded with strong rhetoric against people from Andhra Pradesh. And after coming to power, he has refused to abide by a policy that obliges his government to pay the college fees for poor students in Hyderabad, irrespective of where they come from.Â
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The 10-year agreement to have Hyderabad as a joint capital asks that no change be made to the administraton or policies of educational institutions for this period. But with KCR appearing to violate that, Andhra Pradesh’s ruling TDP is fighting back.
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TDP leader and Andhra Pradesh social welfare minister R Kishore Babu said, “We don’t want to share information about where the people came from. It is discriminatory. They are asking for bank accounts and property returns. That is not the business of the government.”
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K T Rama Rao, Telangana’s IT and PR minister, claims the apprehensions are being whipped up by vested interests. “The fear is unfounded. Look at the survey form. There is no column for nativity, no question about domicile,” he said.