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Petition against Telangana survey

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HYDERABAD: The intensive household survey that the Telangana government proposes to conduct across the new state on August 19 has triggered panic with thousands of Telangana natives working or studying elsewhere scrambling to be present in their respective homes in Greater Hyderabad and other Telangana districts on the day of the survey.At the same time, various forms of the questionnaire meant to be filled up by the residents circulating in the city has the Seemandhra residents in Hyderabad worried as one version said the nativity of the person and the year he/she came to the city would be asked. However, Telangana officials clarified that there is no nativity clause in the official questionnaire even as it declared a state government holiday on August 19.While officials said that bona fide residents of a certain household who are studying or working elsewhere in the country or abroad need not be physically present on the day of the survey and that their identity would be corroborated through the ration card or other documents, the word that is going to the thousands of Telangana people living outside the state is that they should be present along with their family members in their house on August 19. "My driver Shankar, who hails from Karimnagar has been told by his villagers that he should be present there on that day failing which he will lose all the benefits of the welfare schemes they are entitled to. As a result, he has taken a day's leave and is going to his native village with his family for the survey," said a prominent Mumbai resident.According to some estimates, there are lakhs of Telugu people living all across Maharashtra, particularly Mumbai and Surat, and many of them are rushing to book tickets on trains and buses in order to be present in the state on the day of the survey. One among them is B Rajendra Prasad, a priest residing in Borivili in Mumbai, who too is rushing to be in his native village in Telangana on August 19. Likewise, there are several Telangana natives working or studying in other cities like Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.The 'other' citizens of Telangana governmentThe survey is to be conducted from 8 am to 8 pm. But the Telangana authorities have not clarified whether the survey would be conducted the next day in case the enumerator is not able to visit a household on August 19. "Would the survey be done the next day, or would another date be given? What will happen to the people who have come from other parts of the country if the survey does not happen on August 19. Will he have to wait endlessly," wondered P Subhash, a Kharkhana resident who has summoned his son Kumar, employed in Delhi, to be present in the city on the day of the survey.On the alleged nativity clause that has the Seemandhra residents in the Greater Hyderabad rattled, Telangana government officials clarified that there is no such clause. "There is no column in the survey form seeking information on their nativity. The only question apart from other details that we would be asking is the mother tongue," principal secretary, panchayat raj and rural development of Telangana, J Raymond Peter, told TOI. On the issue of a resident not being at home due to medical emergency or any other reason, Peter said the person can leave the household details with his neighbour.Meanwhile, GHMC commissioner Somesh Kumar said on Monday evening that in the GHMC limits, officials concerned will, on August 17 and 18, circulate to the households a checklist of documents that they should keep ready for the survey. However, according to sources, the Telangana authorities are facing a big shortage of enumerators. With the survey barely a week away, the panic is likely to intensify in the next few days.