Telangana Advisor Calls for CB-CID Inquiry into 2014 Intensive Household Survey Irregularities

Hyderabad: Mohammed Ali Shabbir, Advisor to the Telangana government for SC, ST, OBC, and Minorities, has urged Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao to order a CB-CID inquiry into alleged irregularities in the Intensive Household Survey (IHS) conducted in 2014 by the then TRS (now BRS) government.

In a letter sent to the Chief Minister on Wednesday, Shabbir Ali raised concerns over a document circulating with misleading information regarding the population of various castes, including SCs, STs, and BCs. This document, titled ‘Samagra Kutumba Survey (SKS)’ or ‘IHS-2014’, contained selective figures that were allegedly leaked to the media, distorting caste demographics.

The survey, conducted on August 19, 2014, involved nearly four lakh government employees, including police personnel, to gather data. However, Shabbir Ali highlighted several irregularities, such as the voluntary nature of data collection, which allowed the survey to avoid legal scrutiny. He also pointed out that the survey was not legally notified under the ‘Collection of Statistics Act, 2008’.

Shabbir Ali claimed that personal information, including Aadhaar numbers, ration card details, bank data, LPG connections, and vehicle registrations, was collected across 94 items. Despite the government spending ₹100 crore on the survey, the results were never officially presented in the Assembly. This, he stated, raised suspicions of financial misappropriation and potential privacy violations.

The Advisor demanded that those responsible for misusing public funds and compromising citizens' data be held accountable. He called for an investigation into whether private entities accessed the sensitive information collected during the survey.