UP will miss Centre’s deadline to set up RERA
The real estate regulatory authority was to be made functional in various states by the May 1 deadline set by the Centre
Homebuyers will have to wait longer for a real estate regulatory body in the state as chief minister Yogi Adityanath, in his meeting with homebuyers on Thursday, did not set any deadline to set up a real estate regulatory authority (RERA) as recruiting officials to run it will take time.
The Centre had set May 1, 2017 as the deadline for RERA to be set up in various states.
On Thursday, the delegation of homebuyers from Noida and Greater Noida who met the CM demanded that the regulatory authority start functioning from May 1 to safeguard their rights. In response, the CM said he has already issued the necessary instructions to the chief secretary and other officials concerned to make RERA functional in the state at earliest.
“We demanded that RERA be implemented in its original form as approved by the Centre. Earlier, the UP government had made changes to safeguard builders. Yogi Adityanath assured us that the UP government will implement RERA exactly as approved by the Central government. He promised that RERA will cover all housing (old or new) projects, send errant builders to jail and work for buyers’ welfare,” said Abhishek Kumar, president, Noida Extension flat owners’ welfare association.
Homebuyers claimed the CM knew about the irregularities committed by the builders in Noida and Greater Noida.
“He did not set any deadline as recruiting staff for RERA will take time, but he assured us that it will happen very soon as officials are already in process of completing formalities to hire staff,” said Anu Khan, another homebuyer.
The twin cities of Noida and Greater Noida have a number of aggrieved homebuyers facing multiple issues with builders. The Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities and even the state government have been unable to address their issues.
The three authorities are themselves yet to recover around Rs25,000 crore from builders in land dues. Many realtors have turned defaulters, citing fund crunch due to dip in sale of flats.
In Noida, 86 group housing projects have been delayed by three to four years due to a slowdown in the realty sector, affecting around one lakh buyers who had invested in projects that were to be delivered by 2012. In Greater Noida, around 3.5 lakh homebuyers are yet to get possession of flats that were to be delivered from 2012.
“The CM has assured homebuyers that all officials will work seriously to address their issues in all realty projects. He also promised homebuyers that the state government will very soon make the real estate regulatory authority functional after completing all procedures and recruitment,” said Amit Mohan Prasad, chief executive officer, Noida and Greater Noida authorities, who was present in the meeting.