Even as the deadline for completion of the Smart Pulse Survey (Praja Sadhikara Survey) came to an end on Monday, the government could cover 1.26 crore households as against the 1.48 crore households.
The exercise could not be completed though the deadline had been extended several times.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu launched the survey on July 8, and the government had set a 45-day deadline for its completion.
Pushkarams to the river Krishna and Dasara festivities are some of the reasons being cited by the officials for the delay.
The government claimed that the enumerators covered close to 3.99 crore people as on Monday.
In all, the enumerators contacted 1.26 crore households. On the last day, over 1.06 lakh families were surveyed.
‘Family’ and ‘household’ are not interchangeable. A household consists of one or more persons living in the same house or apartment, but are not related. A family has two or more members who live in the same home and are related to each other.
The government pressed 30,000 enumerators into service to collect the socio-economic data. Unlike the conventional method of filling the data sheet, the enumerators were provided tablets.
Another reason for the tardy progress is the apprehension among the people that they would be rendered ineligible for various welfare schemes if they part with actual information.
CPI(M) capital region convener Ch. Babu Rao says the survey is going slow as people are not forthcoming, fearing deletion of their names from welfare schemes.
The government has cleverly linked the survey to ‘Chandranna Bima,” he says.
“It is enticing the people to disclose their family particulars,” he adds.
Technical problems
Technical glitches too are responsible for the delay.
The enumerators have complained about problems in using the App, uploading the data, and generating the zipper code for each house. There are also problems such as saving the data after entering the details.
There are also complaints that the enumerators have not visited their houses or locality.
The data collected from each household is being uploaded online for real time monitoring. Information will be updated from time to time even after the actual survey is completed. A database will be created through geo-tagging and updated from time to time.
Citizens can provide their details online as well.
