A BOLD CASTE COUNT MOVE

The Telangana government has commissioned a comprehensive socio-economic, employment and caste survey that is far-reaching, with the ruling Congress even saying its results will set the ball rolling for an expansion of constitutional rights.

- Amarnath K. Menon

The aim is to extend reservations for backward classes (BCS), which would exceed the current 50 per cent ceiling set by the Supreme Court. However, in its early days, the initiative that began on November 9 has met with resistance from some citizens reluctant to share their personal information.

The survey will cover around 11.75 million families, about 2.8 million of whom are in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation area. However, there is a clear rural-urban divide-those in rural areas are quick to respond despite being busy with farming, urbanites are more reluctant to share Aadhaar numbers, income details and phone numbers. Some have raised concerns following recent alerts from cybersecurity agencies about scammers sending counterfeit links to compromise bank accounts on the pretext of conducting the survey. This makes the enumerators' job challenging. Although the government has set up a dashboard to monitor real-time progress on survey modules, the exercise risks missing the November 30 deadline.