Telangana: Congress Government goes back on yet another promise; LRS not for free

In the run up to Assembly elections in the State, the Congress leaders had assured the people that after coming to power, LRS would be implemented for free.

Hyderabad: After having promised people that Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS) would be implemented for free, the Congress government has now decided to go ahead with the collection of charges for regularising unauthorized layouts under the scheme.

In the run up to Assembly elections in the State, the Congress leaders had assured the people that after coming to power, LRS would be implemented for free.

---

In October 2020, the then CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka had slammed the then TRS government for collecting the LRS fee. He even called the move a bankrupt idea of the government to fill its empty coffers and had asked the people not to pay the regularisation fee. Similarly, the then TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy had asked people not to apply for LRS and assured to regularise the plots for free after Congress comes to power.

On October 9, 2020, the then TPCC president had said it was most inhuman scheme to fleece people. “Congress will go to the people with NO LRS- NO TRS slogan,” Uttam Kumar Reddy had said then.

In sharp contrast to the assurances given in the past, the Congress government is now asking the LRS applicants to pay the fee and is even offering 25 percent rebate to those, who pay the fee before March 31 this year. Around 25.44 lakh applications were filed under the LRS across the State. Officials said, there 4.13 lakh were filed under different municipal corporations, 10.54 lakh from municipalities and 10.76 lakh from Panchayats.

For open plots and non-layout, applicants paid Rs.1000. Similarly, for large layouts Rs.10,000 was paid by the applicants. Since last February, the government has directed the officials to expedite the LRS processing. However, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi has been demanding the Congress government to fulfill electoral promise and implement the LRS scheme for free.

When the scheme was launched by BRS government in the past, the Congress leaders had demanded that regularisation should be done for free, former Minister T Harish Rao had said. Taking a ‘U’ turn, now the Congress government was directions the applicants to pay regularisation fee, he had slammed. Likewise, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay said the Congress was betraying the people by collecting LRS fee.

The Congress government aims to collect Rs.50,000 crore through LRS. But it was betraying the people after having promised to regularise the lands for free during the Assembly elections, he said during his visit to Peddapalli on Friday.