KADAPA: Hailing the Hyderabad High Court’s directive that the Telangana State government’s Intensive Household Survey (IHS) should be a voluntary one, AP Social Welfare Minister R Kishore Babu on Friday asked the people of Andhra Pradesh living in Telangana state not to fill up or answer any question that was against their interests/rights.
Kishore Babu, who was in Kadapa to attend the Independence Day celebrations, spoke to newsmen at the state guest house later. “While the HC has made the survey an optional one, the Telangana State government is taking up the survey only to brand people from Andhra region as non-locals and treat them as second grade citizens” he alleged. He ridiculed the claims of the Telangana State government that it was taking up the survey only for extending the welfare schemes to eligible families. “There is a hidden agenda behind the survey’’, he stressed.
Kishore Babu said by fixing 1956 year as cut-off point, the Telangana State was trying to drive away people of AP from there. “The population of Hyderabad was once 10 lakhs. Now, it is touching 1.10 crore. The Telangana government is trying to drive away the one crore people from Hyderabad’’, he alleged and added that the TS government was trying to create a fear psychosis among the people of AP living there.
The SW minister alleged that the Telangana government was creating apprehensions by creating hurdles in the implementation of the fee reimbursement scheme, EAMCET counselling and now giving law and order powers to Governor.