Yesterday
cabinet of India approved real estate(regulation and development) bill. This bill aims to establish the Real Estate Regulatory Authority for
regulation and planned development in the real estate sector, to ensure sale of
immovable properties in an efficient and transparent manner, and to protect the
interest of consumers in the real estate sector.
Earlier also
central and state governments have passed so many legislations and policies to
regulate this sector. Primary object of all these legislations and policies was
to help consumer from being cheated, to provide affordable housing, to give concessions
to this sector for benefit of poor. However, none of these legislations or
policies could provide shelter for poor. All the benefits or concessions given
by governments never reached to its real beneficiary. All the incentives, benefits, facilities, and concession
meant for poor were robbed by mafias in this sector. Because no government attempted
to check whether these benefits reach to real beneficiaries or not. That was
deliberate and hand in glove with real estate mafias.
There were and
are several legislations or policies that were meant for affordable housing.
e.g. housing for economically weaker section (EWS) , Urban Land ceiling ( ULC)
, so many awas yojanas , special Township act , Slum rehabilitation Act (SRA),
Affordable housing policy , National Urban Housing & Habitat Policy (NUHHP),
Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) , Integrated Housing & Slum
Development Programme (IHSDP), various state housing boards etc. etc.
None of the above could provide adequate affordable
housing or housing for poor. There were several benefits and concessions
given in all the above schemes and policies but they never reached to real beneficiaries'
.Only beneficiary of such benefits and concessions were developers. Anarchy is
Urban Land Ceiling Act was introduced to acquire land for affordable housing
and it was repealed for the same reason.
As far as Maharashtra
is concerned, the first ever DRAFT STATE HOUSING POLICY was published in 2006.
The main objective of this policy to address
the issue of providing affordable housing for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS),
Low Income Group (LIG), and Middle Income Group (MIG) .Under this policy and In
order to encourage private investment in housing sector and to facilitate
housing at affordable prices. Incentives for this scheme include automatic Non-agriculture
permission, floating FSI in the township, concession in stamp duty, and concession
in development charges and so on. However,
what fate this scheme has mate? . Who got benefits of all those incentives ?
Can a person from EWS, LIG, and MIG dare or
afford to purchase house in such schemes?. Forget about purchasing house in
these schemes.Some townships are encouraging investors to buy flats in these schemes.
Don't they know why they have received all the incentives? If you ask them why
they are encouraging investors instead of real buyers they will shamelessly say
that, government has put in any such condition. That is true there is no such condition
or any authority to check whether such incentives reach to its real beneficiaries
or not.
Not only this
but many developers of such schemes even don't disclose correct fact of the schemes
,don't complete projects in time, don't give promised amenities .And there was
not any authority to attend such complaints or to take sou motto action on such
developers. Now government has come forward with one such authority called Real
Estate Regulatory Authority. (RERA)
Hence forth every
project above has to be registered with RERA and for that he/she has to declare
among other things legal title to the land, land is free from all encumbrances and
has to give affirmation that the project or the phase of the project shall be
completed as the case may be in accordance with the terms and conditions of the
registration.
This Authority
may, on receipt of a complaint in this behalf or suo motto or on the
recommendation of the Competent Authority, revoke the registration granted if
(a) The promoter makes willful default in doing
anything required of him by or under this Act or the rules or the regulations
made there under;
(b) The
promoter violates any of the terms or conditions of the agreement entered into
with the Competent Authority: Provided that the Authority shall revoke the
registration under this clause only on a recommendation received from the
Competent Authority in this behalf;
(c) The
promoter is involved in any kind of unfair practice or irregularities.
Explanation.--
For the purposes of this clause, the term “unfair practice means” a practice
which, for the purpose of promoting the sale or development of any immovable
property adopts any unfair method or unfair or deceptive practice including any
of the following practices, namely:-
(A) The
practice of making any statement, whether orally or writing or by visible
representation which,-
(i) Falsely
represents that the services are of a particular standard or grade;
(ii) Represents
that the promoter has approval or affiliation, which such promoter does not
have;
(iii) makes a
false or misleading representation concerning the
services;
(B) permits the
publication of any advertisement whether in any newspaper or otherwise of services
that are not intended to be offered.
In this act,
there is also provision of penalty If any promoter willfully fails to comply with
or contravenes the provisions in act, he shall be punishable with imprisonment
for a term which may extend to three years, or a penalty which may extend to ten
per cent of the estimated cost of the real estate project, or with both.
Let us hope
this act will really regulate real estate sector and protect rights of consumers
also .
