HYDRAA impact: LRS application processing slows down

Many fear future government action despite regularizing layouts, worrying that approving officers might be held responsible. This hesitation is causing delays in processing Layout Regularization Scheme (LRS) applications.

Hyderabad: With the State government announcing that a system on the lines of the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Protection Agency (HYDRAA) would be established in districts, there appears to be apprehensions among Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS) applicants.

Many feel that after regularizing their layouts or structures, the government could still initiate action in future, citing that officers who approved such permissions would also be held responsible. Amidst these fears, the processing of LRS applications is getting delayed as many applicants are not keen on approaching officials to get their applications processed.

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Last week HYDRAA had recommended action against six officers from the municipal, irrigation and other departments for according permissions to different structures. Considering this action, officials were now bit cautious in processing the applications, said an office bearer of the Telangana Tahsildars Association.

The government had also announced that if there were any issues in the future and it was found that their report was wrong, the officers, who cleared the applications, would be held responsible. This has now made the officials more watchful. Eventually, this could also cast an impact on the government’s plans of fetching Rs.2,000 crore to Rs.3,000 crore from the processing of LRS applications.

It may be recalled that the State government had invited LRS applications in 2020. Accordingly, 25.70 lakh applications were filed between August 31 and October 31, 2020. Of these, 3.58 lakh applications were in the HMDA limits and one lakh were from the GHMC limits. While, a few were rejected, citing different reasons, including urban land ceiling, others were yet to be processed. This apart, in the wake of floods in a few districts, officials from revenue, municipal administration and irrigation departments were caught up in rescue and relief measures.

Last month, Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy had directed officials to expedite the processing of applications. All the exercise pertaining to processing the applications should be completed in three months, he had said.

Special teams involving revenue, municipal administration and irrigation were being constituted to expedite the processing. In addition to these, help desks were to be set up at different offices at district levels for the convenience of applicants. But hardly there are any such desks or queries from applicants about the status of their applications.