People Wait For LRS, BPS Continues Unabated

Hyderabad:Long wait for Layout Regulation Scheme (LRS) and Building Penalization Scheme (BPS) applicants continues across Telangana with procedural delays, poor departmental coordination, technical bottlenecks and allegations of corruption causing distress to citizens.

While BPS files have been stuck due to cases filed in the Supreme Court and High Court since 2015, the situation of LRS, which was reopened in 2020, has become equally chaotic.

Of the 25.67 lakh LRS applications received across the state, a staggering number remain unresolved despite applicants paying hefty regulatory fees between February and June this year. Within GHMC limits alone, 1.39 lakh citizens have applied under BPS.

Despite the government collecting hundreds of crores as application fees and regulatory fees under the LRS and BPS schemes, citizens paying their hard-earned money are left completely stranded.

The state government has announced a 25 per cent discount in LRS fees in February 2025 to encourage applicants to pay their dues and complete the regularization process. The original deadline of March 31 was later extended several times, and the cut was eventually postponed until June 30.

The previous BRS government had called for LRS applications between 31 August and 31 October 2020. They received a total of 25.44 lakh applications, including from panchayats (10.76 lakh applications), municipalities (10.54 lakh) and municipal corporations (4.13 lakh). The government received 1.06 lakh applications in GHMC limits, 1.01 lakh applications in Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWM) limits and 50,000 applications in Khammam Municipal Corporation limits.

The state government earned around Rs 250 billion from application fees alone. Each applicant had paid Rs 1,000 for regularization for small plots and Rs 10,000 for larger plots. Shortly after the application fees were collected, the government stopped the process, citing legal issues. It remained stalled until February 2025, when the Congress government restarted the scheme by offering a 25 per cent reduction in LRS fees.

Even though the government promised to initiate LRS transactions within 15 days of payment in February 2025, applicants complained that they had not received their transactions even after eight months.

The official portal shows most applications frozen at level one verification (L1), which are handled by revenue and irrigation authorities who must confirm whether lands fall within prohibited zones, water bodies or encroachments. L2 review by city planning authorities and L3 approvals by City Commissioners saw negligible movement leading to a statewide recession.

The applicants claim that lack of coordination between the municipality, revenue and irrigation departments has hampered the process. Although the fee payments were accepted after review by municipal officials, the applicants claim there was no subsequent contact. Complaints are common that authorities do not provide clarity on case status and distribute responsibility among departments, leaving people in limbo.

The government, which had notified 20,00,493 LRS applicants in April 2025 to pay regularization and commensurate open space charges, saw only 3,25,538 applicants paying fees by May. Earlier, around 5 lakh of the total 25,67,107 applications received, including 15.37 lakh from municipal corporations and 9 lakh from gram panchayats, were rejected due to various technical reasons. Even among fee-paying applicants, in most cases no lawsuits are filed, leading to criticism for administrative indifference.

Official sources said only 20 per cent of applicants across the state have been processed so far. It was reported that revenue and irrigation officials kept thousands of applications pending for months, applicants stated that they did not approach them, and people said that they were never informed that their physical presence was required. Applicants who apply to municipal authorities are told that LRS transactions cannot be processed unless revenue and irrigation permits are issued, causing further frustration.

Amid mounting allegations, reports of bribery have emerged; applicants claimed that some officials cleared pending cases within a week if around 10,000 payments were made directly or through intermediaries. Such complaints are particularly strong in HMDA limits, where around 3.60 lakh LRS applications have been filed from 1,200 villages, but only 70,000 applicants have paid fees and barely 20 per cent of them have been acted upon. HMDA has issued only 8,706 cases so far.

In Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation limits, only 8,000 out of 72,196 fee-paying applicants were processed. In Turkaymjal municipality, only 3,000 out of 40,881 applications were approved. Pedda Amberpet saw only 2,000 out of 34,776 payments issued. In Khammam, 2,800 out of 29,321 applicants were prosecuted; 2,500 out of 24,020 in Karimnagar; In Suryapet, only 3,925 out of 31,940 people; In Choutuppal municipality, only 10 percent of the applicants received their orders. The petitioners allege that revenue and irrigation authorities deliberately delayed permissions, resulting in piles of files at municipal and gram panchayat offices.

To ease the burden on applicants, the Telangana government has extended the discount deadline for LRS issuance fees and commensurate open space fees to J, 2025 and provided 25% discount to those who complete the payments before the deadline. However, applicants question the validity of the discounts if basic transactions are not completed despite payments being made months ago.

With delays, blame games by ministries and allegations of corruption eroding public trust, thousands of applicants across Telangana remain uncertain about when or whether their LRS and BPS applications will finally be issued.