Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka has asked people not to pay the regularisation fee under the Land Regularisation Scheme (LRS) unveiled by the State government recently even if they have applied for it and assured that the Congress would implement the scheme without any fee once it returns to power in the next elections.
“It’s one of the bankrupt ideas of the State government to fill its empty coffers and to repay huge debt, about ₹3 lakh crore made during the last six years. It has run out of all ideas to improve the State’s economy and has resorted to collect as much money as possible from people through direct and indirect taxes, including the LRS regularisation fee,” Mr. Vikramarka said addrressing a press conference here on Monday.
The LRS scheme was aimed at burdening the people embattled by the economic crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, the CLP Leader said adding that the Congress government that would be formed after the next elections would cancel the regularisation fee. “There’s no meaning in getting the land already registered one more time through LRS scheme. It’s meant only to mobilise funds for the government,” Mr. Vikramarka noted.
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Comparing the huge LRS fee structure to ‘Bhoomi Sisthu’ (land cess) collected by the Nizam’s Government in the past, the Congress leader said many a land owner would surrender their lands to the government unable to pay huge cess which they could not even earn from a bumper harvest. He accused the State government of planning to bring back the bonded labour system through LRS as was done by the Nizam’s Government in the past by turning the farmers into bonded labourers to ‘Jamindars’ (landowners-government) in lieu of the land cess dues.
The CLP Leader also cautioned people against more such taxes from the government in the coming days to repay the debt that was expected double to over ₹6 lakh crore in the next three years with the help of relaxations given for borrowings by amending the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management norms.
Meanwhile, in another media interaction Congress MP from Bhongir Komatireddy Venkat Reddy said that he had already filed a public interest litigation in the High Court to stop LRS and the Congress party would not hesitate even to approach the Supreme Court in the matter and for getting justice to the poor. He alleged that the TRS government was planning to mobilise about ₹3 lakh crore through the scheme, including ₹1 lakh crore in Rangareddy district itself.
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Mr. Venkat Reddy also asked people not to pay the regularisation fee even if they had applied for it as the Congress would do it for free when it would form the government in the next elections. Congress legislator from Sangareddy T. Jayaprakash Reddy also criticised the government on LRS.