Allaying misgivings among some sections, Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mohammad Mahmood Ali asserted that the State-wide August 19 household survey was not to determine nativity of people as being believed by some.
All such misconceptions are bound to vanish when the format to collect the household data will be uploaded in the website on August 10 or 11. In fact, people can download them and be ready with accurate information including the Aadhar number, he said.
The format has no column to seek place of birth or income of individuals. It would only record the profile of family, social status (SC, ST, BC, OBC), religion, residential address, number of members, age, sex, education qualifications, occupation, employment/profession/ self-employment, assets such as land holdings, category such as assigned, Inam, IKP, Podu, tenant farmer, own or rented house, vehicles, details of disabled, migrant families, those settled from other States, spoken language, the year of migration etc., among other things.
Based on the data furnished, the government will assess the income and economic status of households based on assets and identify beneficiaries for housing, white ration cards, pensions, fee reimbursement etc., says a senior official. Those who furnish false information are liable for prosecution.
The government was spending Rs.1,400 crore on civil supplies/food subsidy, pensions will jump to Rs.4,000 crore, and fee reimbursement to Rs. 6,200 crore. Thus targeting of beneficiaries is important. So far targeting has been non-serious, every body ‘became poor’ because of schemes linked to white ration cards. The household survey would help classify the people based on their true economic status, official sources said.
Once the lacunae in the system are fixed after the proposed survey, it ensures judicious spending of public money, they added.
