Harish Rao asks CM to honour free LRS promise

He criticised the State government for its failure to address critical issues like delayed crop loan waiver and Rythu Bharosa support to farmers, and rising healthcare costs due to widespread fevers, and other challenges.

Hyderabad: Former Minister and Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao asked Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to honour his election promise of implementing the Land Regularisation Scheme (LRS) free of cost. He criticised the State government for its failure to address critical issues like delayed crop loan waiver and Rythu Bharosa support to farmers, and rising healthcare costs due to widespread fevers, and other challenges.

“Instead, the Congress government is busy fixing targets to the officials and collecting huge LRS fee, adding to the financial strain on citizens. The field staff including village secretaries and bill collectors are being harassed to aggressively collect LRS fee,” he said, adding that officials were threatening citizens to cancel property layouts if payments were not made immediately.

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In an open letter to the Chief Minister on Monday, Harish Rao said the State government was trying to collect Rs.15,000 crore through the LRS fee, which was an unjust burden on the people. “This is nothing short of sucking the flesh and blood of the people,” he said.

He reminded the Chief Minister of electoral promises made by him and other Congress leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Ministers N Uttam Kumar Reddy and D Anasuya alias Seethakka to implement the LRS without any charges. He questioned the government’s change in stance, accusing it of exploiting the very people it had vowed to support.

The former Minister called out the double-standards of the Congress leadership, pointing out that Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy had even filed a petition in the Telangana High Court against the LRS. He urged the people of Telangana to refrain from paying the LRS fee to mark their protest against the government’s failure to deliver its promise of free LRS. He assured that the BRS would take responsibility for ensuring the LRS was implemented free of charge, holding the Congress government accountable to its commitments.