Hyderabad: The Telangana government has initiated the linking of welfare schemes with the Intensive Household Survey that it had conducted on August 19 last year.

Beedi workers, mainly women, who form a major chunk in Telangana, are currently being identified on the basis of the survey results.

The TS survey found that there were only 1.70 lakh beedi workers in Telangana, but the actual figure is being estimated at nearly 5 lakh.

While Opposition parties continue to criticise the government over the purpose the survey has served, the government has started linking the survey to counter them.

The TS government has launched a pension scheme exclusively for beedi workers wherein Rs 1,000 is to be distributed every month.

Thousands of beedi workers have been denied pensions because they failed to enroll in the survey or failed to mention their occupation.

While Opposition parties continue to criticise the government over the purpose the survey has served, the government has started linking the survey to counter them.

“In my constituency, there are 22,235 beedi workers, but only 14,240 got enrolled for the TS survey and gave details about their occupation. The government has thus given pension eligibility to only these 14,240 workers, leaving aside another 8,000 workers, mostly women. This is gross injustice for them. Just because they failed to enroll for the survey for various reasons, they should not be punished,” said Mr G. Vittal Reddy, MLA of Mudhole constituency in Adilabad district.

Mr Reddy took up the issue in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday during Zero Hour. He urged the government to take up ground verification of beedi workers again to determine their eligibility instead of simply relying on the TS survey.

Minister for Panchayat Raj, Mr K.T. Rama Rao, replied that he would discuss the issue with officials and take corrective measures to ensure that genuine beedi workers were not affected on account of the TS survey.