High Court Stays Process Of BRS & LRS Schemes

The Hyderabad High Court today issued orders staying the process of the recently announced regularization of buildings and layouts schemes (BRS & LRS) in Hyderabad, sending shockwaves among the building owners in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

After hearing a petition filed by Forum for Good Governance opposing the ongoing regularization of buildings and layouts, the High Court issued the interim order halting the procedure till further directions.

However, the government can continue to receive applications from builders for the regularization of their buildings and layouts pending a final decision, it added.

Even as the Building Regularization Scheme (BRS) and Layout Regularization Scheme (LRS) are being criticized by citizens concerned about the beauty of the city, the High Court's order came as yet another blow to the Telangana government's efforts to give concessions to builders who violated rules with unapproved constructions all over the city.

The scheme was aimed not only at filling the government coffers with crores of rupees in the form of penalties levied on the builders, but also at serving the ruling Party's political ends in the coming GHMC elections - thousands of owners are trying to get their buildings and layouts regularized to avoid any legal issues in future.

After the announcement of the scheme, thousands of building owners and builders filed applications with the GHMC for the regularization of their unapproved constructions. Certified municipal engineers started the process of measuring the built-up area of the buildings and layouts, and civil engineering institutions and architects collected handsome amounts from the building owners and builders. With the High Court's interim stay, all of this now gets affected, and thousands of applicants will end up in a quandary.

The Forum for Good Governance argued that the government's liberal stand on the illegal buildings would damage the city's overall layout in the long run. It asked how the government could make Hyderabad a global city by regularizing buildings constructed in a haphazard way.

The case has been adjourned for further hearings.