Urban local bodies across the State have speeded up the disposal of thousands of Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS) application forms, with an aim to finish it latest by first week of October.
Bulk of the applications were received by Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation where people years ago purchased plots in unauthorised layouts that mushroomed in urban and semi urban areas and got them registered. The other 57 ULDs also received about one lakh applications under the LRS.
The Telangana government, which launched a drive for regulated and planned development of urban local bodies, issued a GO 151 in November, 2015 giving an opportunity for the buyers of plots in the unauthorised layouts for regularisation. The amount collected would be spent for providing basic amenities for these layouts. The GO came out with guidelines for regularisation so long as the plots or layouts did not violate the Master Plan guidelines for layout development.
Lakhs of applicants, who out of ignorance purchased plots in the unauthorised layouts, submitted their applications. The regularisation process gained pace last month after Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao held a review meeting and it came to light that over 50 per cent of applications were yet to be disposed of even after nearly two years.
Shortage of staff, field personnel to carry out field inspection to ensure the plots did not fall in the zones earmarked for roads, industries or near water bodies, shikam lands had been the main factors for the slow disposal of LRS applications.
In HMDA jurisdiction, about 10,000 applications were still pending and process was on to dispose them of after field verification. Some applications could not be taken up for processing as the applicants did not submit all the required documents and they were put under the ‘shortfall’ category. HMDA overall received 1.75 lakh applications for regularisation of plots.
According to the DTCP officials, out of 93,556 applications received for regularisation under LRS from 57 Urban Local Bodies, about 79,000 applications were disposed of and 14,570 were pending which would be disposed of in the next few days. At present spot verification was going on by the field staff and licensed technical personnel to certify the eligibility for regularisation, they said.The DTCP sources said ₹ 253 crore had been collected under the regularisation and another ₹ 100 crore plus was expected in the next few days. Those whose applications were approved for regularisation would have to pay the amount within a month.
