Illegal buildings sprout ahead of LRS plan

Hyderabad: Illegal layouts and buildings have been mushrooming in villages under HMDA limits to cash in on the TS government’s proposed Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS) and Building Regularisation Scheme (BRS).

Realtors and builders are luring panchayat officials with bribes to secure layout and building approvals with old dates so that they can apply for the regularisation scheme. Enquiry by the Enforcement Wing of HMDA revealed irregularities in granting approvals by panchayat officials in nexus with realtors.

“The HMDA has written to the state government to initiate criminal proceedings against EOs, panchayat secretaries and sarpanches and not to allow regularisation of these layouts and buildings that are being approved now with old dates,” said a senior official of the Panchayat Raj department.

He said that the inquiry had revealed that the officials had advised realtors to take approvals with old dates and apply for the BRS and LRS. It found that the approvals were given with dates as old as a decade ago.

The letter points out that approvals that needed to be given at the HMDA commissioner’s level had also been given by panchayat officials. Based on these, the realtors took up many projects.

The wing after examining several buildings found that 30 buildings and three gated communities had been approved recently with old dates. These approvals were given in Nizampet, Gandi Maisamma, Bourampeta, Dhoolapally and Pragathinagar villages.