Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Thursday issued orders directing the property owners in the State to defer collection of rentals from tenants, wherever the property is rented for residential purpose for a period of three months from March 2020.

The property owners have been asked to collect the rentals in instalments after three months and without any interest on the rent payable.

The District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) headed by the District Collector has been asked to empower local authorities, including the Commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and other Commissioners in their respective jurisdictions to implement the orders.

The government said that a large section of population lives in rented accommodation and that rental constitutes significant proportion of the monthly income, in some cases as high as 40 per cent of the monthly income.

These people will be adversely affected if payment of timely rents is insisted upon by the property owners at this point.

Whoever violates these orders would be liable for punishment as contemplated under Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 and Sections 51 to 58 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

All District Collectors and the Municipal Commissioners in the state have been asked to strictly implement these orders.