Telangana eyes Rs 1,000 cr via building regularisation plan

Hyderabad: The State government hopes to mop up Rs 1,000 crore for the current fiscal year 2022–2023 if the High Court lifts the stay order on the Building Regularisation Scheme (BRS).

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation had received 1.39 lakh applications from building owners and builders for regularising illegal constructions under the BRS, which the Telangana government announced in November 2015. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the BRS, however, resulted in a stay order from the High Court in December 2015.

It caused the scheme to be halted pending the outcome of the court's final verdict.

The government is now making significant efforts to have the High Court stay lifted, and the GHMC has already appointed a team of dedicated lawyers to work with the Advocate General to get the stay lifted at the earliest. In 2020, the High Court had instructed the GHMC to use cutting-edge technology to conduct field-level inspections and submit a thorough report on the number of unauthorised constructions.

It should be mentioned that unauthorised constructions exploded throughout the city after the BRS due date of March 1, 2016.

Further, the GHMC has not yet performed any field inspections or examined any constructions. The civic body doesn't even have information on how many illegal constructions were built after the deadline. The HC has warned the GHMC for failing to control unauthorised construction on numerous occasions, and incensed by the civic body's response, it issued a warning on March 4,
2021, stating that if any staff members were found to be delinquent in stopping unauthorised construction, heads would roll at all levels of
management, all the way down to field staff. "If they don't pick up the thread even now, they will face the consequences," Chief Justice Hima Kohli had observed.

As a result of the court's warning, the GHMC enlisted the help of the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) to take satellite images of 1.39 lakh buildings. Subsequently, NRSA procured satellite images of the buildings.

According to corporation authorities, the civic body submitted the data to the court, whereupon they claim to have discovered more than one lakh illegal structures that were built beyond the BRS due date.

Meanwhile, a senior official on condition of anonymity told Deccan Chronicle that the government hopes to garner Rs 1,150 crore revenue through the issuance of building permission during the current financial year 2022-23.