LRS applications processing sidelined across Telangana

Lack of coordination between different departments is a challenge. To process an application, revenue, irrigation and panchayat raj departments have to check and approve the application

Hyderabad: Despite orders right from Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, to officials asking them to expedite the processing of Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS) applications, they are hardly being followed at the ground level.

In June, the Deputy Chief Minister and the Revenue Minister had convened a couple of meetings with officials and instructed them to process the applications. Yet, the exercise has been sidelined for different reasons. The prime reason is lack of latitude and longitude details in the applications. Since many applications were submitted long back, they lack the latitude and longitude details for pinpoint identification of the applicant’s plot.

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When officials were calling the applicants over phone to seek these details, majority were not responding to the calls. Identification of the plots was very crucial since it should be verified whether it was government land or any water body area, said an office bearer of the Telangana Tahsildars Association.

Lack of coordination between different departments is another challenge. To process an application, revenue, irrigation and panchayat raj departments have to check and approve the application. Based on a survey number, the revenue inspector checks the plot area and whether it is government land. Similarly, an Assistant Engineer from Irrigation department will have to check if the plot comes under any water body area (FTL or buffer zone). The Panchayat Secretary also has to check the details for approving the application.

Given the skeletal staff, it was challenging for the officials to check and process the applications. Further, revenue department staff and irrigation staff was occupied with other tasks, especially lake areas identification and any encroachments in those areas, the office bearer said.

Accordingly, the processing of LRS applications was taking a backseat.

The LRS was launched to regularise the plots and facilitate legal transactions, besides enabling owners to obtain building permissions. The State government received 25.67 lakh applications. Of these, 10.54 lakh came from municipalities, 10.76 lakh from gram panchayats, and the remainder from municipal corporations. According to official sources, only 4.9 lakh applications have been processed so far and just over 80,000 applications were cleared.

The delay in processing is leaving the applicants high and dry as they can neither sell the plot nor take up any construction.