 "Telangana to wear a deserted look")
The state government has declared a holiday and, apart from government offices, cinema halls, malls, banks, hotels, shops, fuel filling stations, other commercial establishments and industrial units will remain closed. Even publishers of various newspapers have given a holiday for their administrative staff.
The survey had caused such a buzz in the past fortnight that all those who were away from their native places started rushing to their respective villages and towns from district headquarters, the state capital and also from far off places like Surat, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore.
Consequently, all the buses and trains, which were either passing through or heading towards various destinations in the newly-formed state had been packed to the brim in the past few days.
GV Ramana Rao, joint managing director of AP State Road Transport Corporation, told Business Standard the corporation had been running around 150 additional buses every day since the last four days. “Today, we pressed into service an additional 1,600 buses across Telangana,” he said.
The AP Petroleum Dealers Federation, which has over 350 filling stations in and around the state capita as its members, said the filling stations would remain closed on August 19 from 6 am. “We have not received any official communication from the state government to close. It is our voluntary decision,” said the federation.
“We will stay put at home on the survey day. However, we have decided to be available to people in and around our location, just in case they have any emergencies,” said T Ashok, an autorickshaw driver at Nizampet here. A few others are also planning to do the same.
Movie buffs have to remain content with televisions at home, as all the 480 theatres in Telangana, including close to 200 in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, will remain closed. “We have already received an official communication from the state government directing us to shut shop on the survey day. This will take a toll on our business, which has already been hit hard by lack of runway hit films since the last couple of weeks,” said the proprietor of Sri Bramarambha and Mallikarjuna twin theatres at Kukatpally in Hyderabad.
“Film-related activities, including shootings, in the Telangana region will not happen on August 19,” said D Suresh Babu, managing director of film production house, Suresh Productions. The Telangana Hotels Association has also decided to close its outfits from 7 am to 7 pm on the survey day.
Similarly, most information technology companies, especially start-ups, small and mid-sized, have voluntarily decided to stay shut, while multinationals and those that execute critical projects have opted to work on August 19.
“We have been following the news being highlighted by the media, and understood the importance of the survey. Hence, we felt it is only right to voluntarily remain closed,” said Aditya Vuchi, chief executive officer of Hyderabad-based start-up Zippr Private Limited.
Meanwhile , the entire government machinery in Telangana is geared up for IHS. The first-of-its-kind survey in the country aims to enumerate all the existing 86,85,000 households in the state in a single day. As many as 3,69,729 personnel, including policemen and students, have been pressed into service to achieve this task.
The survey forum, already being handed over to residents since Sunday, seeks to obtain details on 18 aspects. These include LPG connection, income tax, bank account, property tax, Aadhaar card, vehicles registration numbers, agricultural land holding, PAN card and mobile phone.
Telangana survey kicks off