Hyderabad: Former minister and Siddipet MP Harish Rao on Monday criticised the Congress government in the state for its decision to collect huge sums of money from the people in the name of Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS)-2020. “Before the elections, they said everything will be free in their government. Now they are charging for everything,” Harish Rao alleged. He demanded that the government implement the LRS (Land Regularisation) scheme free of cost.

He wrote an open letter to Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on the issue. In his letter, he referred to the statements made by Congress leaders during the BRS party’s rule after the implementation of the LRS-2020. He said Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and ministers N Uttam Kumar Reddy and D Seethakka had demanded that the then BRS government implement the LRS free of cost. Rao alleged that the state government officials called the LRS applicants and forced them to pay the LRS fee. He also alleged that the state government had set a target for its officials to collect Rs 15,000 crore from the LRS applicants. Rao warned that the BRS party would raise its voice on behalf of the LRS applicants if the state government did not meet its demand to implement the scheme free of cost.