Hyderabad: Stressing that the Telangana govt conducted the socio-economic, education, employment, political, and caste survey in a transparent manner, Telangana deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said he was ready to prove the genuineness and authenticity of the survey if anyone has any doubts.
Bhatti mentioned that the caste survey questionnaires, consisting of about eight crore papers, were preserved block-wise and village-wise in cartons, similar to EVMs in strongrooms. He urged the BC organisations not to fall into the trap of some parties’ false propaganda.
“In the future, the govt may decide to show or check them to clear any doubts. I am saying this to stress the authenticity and how the state govt is committed to completing the survey with utmost transparency,” the deputy CM, who also handles the finance and planning department, said in an exclusive interview with TOI.
Rubbishing claims by some parties and leaders that the survey was not conducted properly, Bhatti said the survey was not done in one day or a few hours. He said the survey was conducted with proper planning and sufficient time was given to the enumerators, terming it a ‘pucca survey’. He claimed that the enumerators were given only 150 houses, and each had to visit only 8 to 10 houses a day, taking the signatures of the heads of the families.
The state govt, after conducting a comprehensive caste survey and presenting a report early this month, is giving another opportunity to those who did not participate in the survey. While 3.54 crore people were covered in the survey, about 3.1% of the state population stayed out of the survey due to various reasons.
“Before taking up the survey, our officials and we in the govt interacted with the Bihar govt, which conducted a caste survey, and sought to know the challenges and issues they encountered. When the previous census was done in the country, Jairam Ramesh was Union minister. The govt even took his views on the caste survey. We took many precautions to avoid any mistakes. If anyone has any doubts, it is only speculation, not based on any facts,” the deputy CM said.
On allegations by some politicians regarding Muslim minorities in the BC group, Bhatti said they only asked the caste of the person in the questionnaire, not their religion. “If a person says he belongs to Dudekula, there is already a list of the castes and their groups, and the enumerator automatically ticks the group, whether the caste is BC, SC, or OC, etc. The list of the castes and groups was not decided by the Congress govt now. Muslims were made part of BCs before the state’s bifurcation,” he stated.
Replying to why BRS and BJP were faulting the survey, the deputy CM said, “With the completion of the caste survey, the Congress govt gets a good name, and it will be a problem for BRS. That’s why they started a smear campaign. BJP is criticising us because if the caste survey is completed in Telangana, there will be pressure on the Centre to take up a caste census across the country. The false propaganda is all about political reasons,” he said.
He also declared that the govt would make the entire report public after a while as it was taking some time to analyse over eight crore papers.
