Cadres of the CPI(M) staged a dharna here on Wednesday in protest against the new GO Ms No 131 issued by the State government under the Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS)-2020.
The protesters termed the GO as an "arbitrary order" aimed at filling the government coffers.
Holding placards in protest against the GO 131, party activists and its frontal organisations took part in the demonstration in front of the Khammam Municipal Corporation (KMC) office.
Addressing the demonstrators, party district executive committee member Y. Srikanth alleged that the GO 131 was issued to levy hefty charges on people in the name of regularisation of unapproved and illegal layout rules as a revenue generating source in these pandemic times.
He demanded that the government revise the LRS rules to make the regularisation charges nominal and desist from imposing burden on people grappling with loss of livelihoods and ripple effects of COVID-19.
Other speakers deplored that the "abrupt stoppage" of land registrations and release of the GO No 131 left scores of poor and middle class people, who purchased small plots by spending their hard-earned savings, in quandary during these turbulent times.
CITU district leader K Venkateshwara Rao, party city committee leader Y Vikram and others took part in the protest.
In Wyra, party local cadre set ablaze the copies of the GO No 131 during a protest demonstration in the mandal headquarters town.
