The Telangana High Court today asked the state government to refrain from taking any coercive action against LRS applicants till the hearing of the Supreme Court was over in the issue.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy issued the orders while hearing a batch of PILs on the LRS and the BRS.
A petitioner, Sagar Rao, pointed out that simply regularising illegal layouts and buildings was having an adverse ecological impact, and was negatively affecting infrastructure like roads, sanitation and drainage facilities as well.
He said that the
floods that had ravaged Hyderabad last year had also been caused by the mushrooming of illegally constructed buildings that the government had okayed under the BRS.
While the bench issued the stay on coercive action, it also clarified that it would take up the hearing of the case only after the completion of the hearing of the Supreme Court on the issue. This prompted many petitioners to tell the HC that the last date to pay the fee under the LRS was January 31.
Meanwhile Congress MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, also one of the petitioners, expressed his happiness over the order of the HC, and said that it would be a slap on the face of the state government.