LRS to be implemented free of cost as promised, BRS demands Congress govt

Former Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, former Deputy Speaker T.Padmarao Goud, Secunderabad Loksabha constituency in-charge Talasani Sai Kiran Yadav, corporators and other leaders staged a protest at the HMDA head office

Hyderabad: In the first major statewide agitation against the Congress government in Telangana, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Wednesday staged protests in front of all urban local bodies demanding that the State government implement the Layout Regularisation Scheme free of cost as it had promised before the Assembly elections. Following a call given by party working president KT Rama Rao, BRS MLAs and senior leaders led the protests at all district headquarters and also constituency headquarters across the State.

The BRS leaders said the Congress had promised the LRS for free before the elections, but after coming to power, it backtracked on the promise. The protesters carried placards and raised slogans against the Congress government, accusing it of plotting to loot Rs.20,000 crore from people in the name of LRS. Later, they submitted representations to officials of urban local bodies, urging that the LRS should be implemented for free.

---

Tension prevailed at the GHMC circle office at Kukatpally and a few other places during the BRS protest. Police refused to allow BRS corporators and other leaders into the office to submit the memorandum to officials. A few protesters were injured in the scuffle.

Earlier, BRS working president KT Rama Rao demanded the immediate regularisation of plots through LRS without charging any fees from the applicants. He said about 25.44 lakh applicants who applied for regularisation of their plots, would be burdened with around Rs 1 lakh each, due to the Congress government reneging on its promise.

He also questioned the silence of the present Congress Ministers, who had strongly opposed LRS initiated by the then BRS government in the past. He said his party would pursue legal course, if the State government fails to respond to their demands.