HYDERABAD: : It is bad news to denizens waiting for regularisation of layouts and building violations. Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) is not in a position to process the applications filed under Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS) and Building Regularisation Scheme (BRS) due to acute staff shortage.
The HMDA has decided to hire employees through private agencies to process the applications. The decision is to hire as many as 60 junior planning staff from March for a period of six months or more to process the applications. Presently, the town planning wing of HMDA is struggling to run day-to-day affairs due to staff crunch.
HMDA had received more than 1.32 lakh applications for layout regularisation, while 37,000 people had applied for building regularisation. A fee of Rs 152 crore was collected in this regard.
It may be recalled that the services of around 200 outsourcing staff, who were working in different HMDA wings, were terminated last year by the then metropolitan commissioner, Shalini Mishra, following allegations of corruption. The action was initiated following direction from Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. But, since then no efforts have been made to hire outsourcing staff.
Now, HMDA has published a short tender notice, inviting private agencies for supply of 60 junior planning staff to process the applications for LRS and BRS. The last date for submission of tenders is March 10. A training programme will be conducted for the selected staff on how to process the LRS and BRS applications.