Advantage builders in revamped real estate bill, Oppn cries foul

Builders appear to have got a better bargain than customers in the revamped Real Estate (Development and Regulation) Bill introduced by the NDA government in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Updated on: May 1, 2015, 11:37:08 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Builders appear to have got a better bargain than customers in the revamped Real Estate (Development and Regulation) Bill introduced by the NDA government in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

The previous UPA government had drafted the bill two years ago for a law to primarily regulate the country’s booming housing business rife with complaints from buyers.

Unhappy with the changes made to the 2013 bill, the Opposition now accused the BJP-led government of being “pro-builder”, adding to its anti-farmer barb over the proposed land acquisition law that will make it easier for industry to buy farmland. It said bill’s redraft should be sent to a parliamentary select committee for review.

The government clarified that the bill protects interests of buyers without throttling the real estate sector. “It is a fine act of balance between the two,” a Union minister said.

The draft, however, reveals builders will enjoy more concessions than buyers. It allows builders to deposit only 50% of the money collected from prospective buyers in an escrow account as against 70% in the UPA-era bill introduced in the Upper House of Parliament in 2013.

Opposition parties alleged that the change would delay projects because builders might misuse buyers’ hard-earned money or spend in projects other than the one the cash was meant for.

But Manoj Gaur, president of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers of India’s NCR wing, welcomed the change, which he said would boost the sector’s health.

The government had also provided an escape route to builders if they fail to deliver flats or apartments within the promised deadline — the number one complaint of buyers.

Builders cannot be held liable for any delay if authorising agencies fail to give statutory clearances on time, such as completion certificate and other approvals. In such cases, the bill says builders can seek extension.

Ashish Kaul, an RTI activist and Gurgaon-based home buyer, said the change would open more avenues for builders to cheat buyers on flimsy grounds.

Besides, a key change in section 14 of the proposed law could lead to a buyer not getting what was promised to him. The bill of 2013 prohibited any alteration in structural plan offered to the buyer.

The new bill allows alterations, but it should be authorised by an architect or engineer and the buyer has to be informed about it. Kaul alleged that buyers could now get flats different from the original design, with a spiked price for a bigger “super-area”.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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