Telangana CM briefs Guv as govt begins caste survey

Hyderabad: The Telangana government began conducting a comprehensive socioeconomic, employment, political, and caste census on Wednesday, as promised by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the election.

A Revanth Reddy, the Chief Minister, hailed the survey as a 'yajna' to attain social justice for disadvantaged groups and equality of opportunities.

The massive exercise that began on Telangana soil is an "adventure" that will change the country's social outlook under Rahul Gandhi's leadership, he said on 'X'.

Reddy also met Governor Jishnu Dev Varma and briefed him about the survey.

The CM urged the Governor to take the survey to the notice of the Centre so that it can be taken into consideration during the national census to be held in 2025, PTI reported.

Reddy, who was accompanied by Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and other leaders, explained the details regarding the survey and its process to the Governor, an official release said.

The CM and leaders told the Governor that Telangana will stand as a role model for the country with regard to the survey in the state, it said.

Official sources said house listing would be carried out in the first phase of the survey from November 6 to 8 in every enumeration block followed by a household survey from November 9 in the second phase.

Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said as many as 94,750 enumerators and 9,478 supervisors have been selected across the state. Each enumerator would cover 150 households.

Training has been given to both the enumerators and supervisors, he said.

Observing that the survey aims at realising the goals of equality of opportunities and social justice as mentioned in the Constitution, he appealed to the citizens to furnish information to the enumerators for the "noble cause".

"This caste survey is to understand the various sections of society, what is their political, economical, social status, and whether they are able to receive the resources, opportunities other things equally or not," he told reporters.

"Once the entire survey is done, we would be able to understand if the wealth of the state, power of the state and other revenues are equally accessible to the people or not," he said.

The survey collects information on households with 56 main questions and 19 supplementary questions.

The queries in the survey relate to religion, caste, marital status, educational qualifications, work, annual income etc. of the members of the household.

One of the questions is whether the members of the family are able to visit the local temples/mosques/churches/other places of worship freely without any discrimination or threat.

Assuring that the data received as part of the survey would be kept confidential, Vikramarka said the citizens need not have any doubts about sharing information.

"Once the entire survey is completed, we will announce the present status of society, of all the communities, of all the people of society," he said.

Rahul Gandhi, who attended a meeting organised by Telangana Congress on the caste survey on November 5, said he is fully committed to ensuring caste census in Telangana and to making the state a model for caste census in the country.

State Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, who kicked off the survey at the Greater Hyderabad Municipal (GHMC) office, urged the citizens to furnish information to the enumerators without any apprehensions.

Describing the survey as a "historic" decision, Prabhakar said the exercise would show the path to the country in the days to come.

The data would be used to run the government to ensure that people get a due share in the fruits of development as per Rahul Gandhi's slogan of determination of share proportional to population, he said.

State IT Minister D Sridhar Babu, who attended the event at Shankarpally near here, said the survey would help the government chalk out plans for the welfare and development of various sections of society.

Congress activists performed a milk 'abhishekam' to a portrait of Rahul Gandhi at Gandhi Bhavan here, the party headquarters in Telangana, on the occasion of the caste survey getting underway.