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Bail for Union Carbide chief challenged

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NK SINGH Bhopal: A local lawyer has moved the court seeking cancellation of the absolute bail granted to Mr. Warren Ander son, chairman of the Union Carbide Corporation, whose Bhopal pesticide plant killed over 2,000 persons last December. Mr. Anderson, who was arrested here in a dramatic manner on December 7 on several charges including the non-bailable Section 304 IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), was released in an even more dramatic manner and later secretly whisked away to Delhi in a state aircraft. The local lawyer, Mr. Quamerud-din Quamer, has contended in his petition to the district and sessions judge of Bhopal, Mr. V. S. Yadav, that the police had neither authority nor jurisdiction to release an accused involved in a heinous crime of mass slaughter. If Mr. Quamer's petition succeeds, it may lead to several complications, including diplomatic problems. The United States Government had not taken kindly to the arrest of the head of one of its most powerful mul...

RERA proves that it is a tootheless tiger


NK SINGH



Real Estate Regulatory Authority, when it came into existence a year ago, was touted as the light at the end of the tunnel for those who had been robbed of their lifetime’s earnings by unscrupulous builders. The lawmakers armed it with enough teeth to penalise errant developers. 


Its primary aim was to protect consumers’ interest by ensuring accountability of builders, infuse transparency, reduce frauds and delays and establish regulatory mechanism. The corollary was to promote growth of a stressed real estate sector by restoring investors’ confidence.

One year down the line, RERA has belied the consumers’ hopes. Home buyers are disillusioned. Madhya Pradesh was among the pioneering States that armed RERA with enough teeth. However, the regulatory authority’s decisions over the past year failed to inspire confidence among the consumers. 

A study of some cases from Indore is revealing. In 20 cases, RERA asked builders to refund money to buyers with 10 per cent interest, but none of them complied, including a particular builder found guilty in 10 cases! 

A 65-year-old retired post office employee from Indore paid Rs 19 lakh to a builder against the agreed price of Rs 17.60 lakh in 2014 for a  flat that was never delivered. Eight months and many hearings later, RERA asked the builder to refund the money with 10 percent interest. It also imposed a paltry penalty of Rs 5,000. The builder cares two hoots.

Another Indore builder sold 700 plots in 2008, promising possession within two years. A decade later, only 250 plots were developed. Thirty investors went to RERA, asking for refunds. RERA refused. It simply levied a fine of 90 paise per sq feet for the delay. The builder had been charging a penal interest of 24 percent from buyers for delay.

A petty shopkeeper from Indore took Rs 11 lakh bank loan in 2013 to buy a flat. He has paid Rs 13 lakh to the bank and the builder, who promised possession in 2015. The builder remained absent on eight successive hearings in RERA! Yet, RERA imposed on him a fine of just Rs 5,000. It also asked him to refund money with 9 percent interest, which he failed to do.

Another example of RERA being soft on builders is its recent order in a case filed against the Gammon project at Bhopal. A buyer complained that although she paid 90 per cent of the sale consideration in 2015 itself, the builder kept indefinitely delaying the project. 

In a declaration filed before RERA, Gammon itself admitted that its project would be completed by June 2019. That, however, did not prevent the builder from demanding full payment plus 20 per cent extra charges from the buyer in 2017 - two years ahead of promised completion date! It also slapped the buyer with 24 percent interest for the period the builder himself delayed the project.

She demanded delivery of her flat and interest for the period of delay. RERA ordered "delivery by December 2017", but failed to instruct the builder to execute delivery! 

RERA also failed to investigate the “unjust” charges levied by the builder, like Rs one lakh and Rs 75,000 for providing electricity and water connection respectively. Normal charges under these heads are Rs 20,000 to Rs 5,000. 

Most remarkable was the figure of Rs 3.15 crore collected by Gammon from buyers for forming a society. This service comes from the Registrar of Firms and Societies at just one-time fee of Rs 3,500. RERA legalised that too!

RERA gave a small relief to the complainant - reducing development charges from Rs 279 to Rs 111 per sq ft. The relief was, however, not extended to all buyers, but to only those who go into litigation against the builder. 

Can RERA save one buyer and allow the remaining to be charged unfairly? Same happened in matter of possession - it was ordered just for this petitioner. If something is patently unjust, is not it RERA’s duty to put a blanket order out?

A retired, high-profile public servant invested her lifetime’s earnings in a project of MP Housing Board at Bhopal. She booked the flat in 2010. Construction started in 2013 and delivery was promised within three years. It is yet to be completed. 

She petitioned RERA, demanding interest for the delay. After hearing the case for months, and several postponements, final arguments took place last January. Even after four months RERA just sits on the order.

With such examples piling up, RERA is fast losing its credibility among buyers. 

Is that the reason why MP RERA is facing censure from other government authorities? Many of its rules are being curtailed or amended by administrative heads of departments of Revenue, Registration and Urban Development. 

It seems the lofty and righteous status that the institution deserved is already lost.

Powers That Be, my column in DB Post of 19 May 2018

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Comments

  1. Thanks for the information. Real Estate describes the built environment without which the businesses and society cannot function. The residential and commercial sub-divisions of the Real estate sector is covered under the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, 2016. The aim of RERA Act is to protect the rights and interests of the consumers and to promote uniformity and standardization of business practices and transactions in the Real Estate sector. It also attempts to balance the interest of buyers and promoters by imposing certain duties on both of them and seeks to establish symmetry of information between buyer and promoter.

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