Hyderabad, Aug 19 (PTI) : Telangana’s government on Tuesday began an intensive household survey across the newly-created state, aiming to collect details of an estimated 84 lakh families.

About 400,000 employees of Telangana, including teachers and policemen, are involved in the massive exercise, according to an official press release here.

In contrast to usual heavy traffic witnessed in the morning hours, roads in Hyderabad wore a deserted look.

The government has declared a holiday for the day and appealed to the people to stay at homes for the purpose of the survey.

Public transport buses and trains witnessed a huge rush of people over the last few days travelling to their native places in view of the survey.

Telangana natives living in cities such as Mumbai, Surat and other places have also reportedly sought to come to their native places for the survey.

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had earlier dismissed allegations that the survey is aimed at identifying natives of the coastal belt, now in Andhra Pradesh. Rao says the survey is being done to ensure that benefits of Government schemes reached the targeted sections.

According to the “Check Slip” posted on the website of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, data is sought about the number of family members in a household, water tap connection, property tax assessment, LPG & electricity connections, bank account, Aadhaar card, caste certificate, birth certificate, disability, vehicles and land owned.

The enumerators have made pre-survey visits to the households in the run up to the survey.

In a release Monday evening, Rao appealed to the people to make the survey a success.

Observing the survey is being conducted for providing welfare schemes to the people and find out what they want, he has asked citizens to give correct information to the enumerators.