BENGALURU: With over 1,000 real estate projects in the state not registering with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) and their proponents not responding to repeated notices, the authorities are in a fix.
Two days ago, the Karnataka-RERA secretary wrote to the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (Credai), requesting it to facilitate the registration of unregistered projects by encouraging promoters/developers to appear before the Authority. Referring to the 1,076 projects “under investigation”, which have been identified by RERA for not having registered with the body, the authority’s secretary said not only have the projects’ proponents not responded to the notices, they have not explained the reason for not registering with RERA as per the provisions. A majority of these projects are in Bengaluru.
“Despite issuance of several notices by RERA, only a few promoters have come forward and registered and a very few promoters have submitted their explanation claiming exemption under the provisions of the Act and rule but have failed to produce relevant documents before the Authority,” RERA secretary Latha Kumari K S wrote in the letter.
She asked the Credai-Karnataka president to support the implementation of the RERA Act and rules in letter and spirit. In his reply, Credai vice president Suresh Hari wrote: “All Credai members have registered under RERA and it is only the small builders who are out of the confederation who have stayed out. So there is nothing that we can do to get them registered.”
Activists who are fighting for the effective implementation of RERA have questioned the authority for not initiating action against these projects “under investigation” and for following a wait and watch policy. “RERA can verify the plan approval sanctioned to projects that are under the scanner. They can even freeze their bank accounts,” said M S Shankar, a RERA activist and the secretary of Fight for RERA-Forum for People’s Collective Efforts.
RERA authorities say it is a herculean task to track project promoters. “Often their registered offices do not exist or emails bounce back. In several cases, there is no way we could find out and track the promoter. RERA cannot initiate penalty provisions without giving the project proponent an opportunity to present the case,” said Kumari.
RERA believes that several of the projects under investigation could be older projects which got approvals and commenced before RERA came into existence.
Source From:- https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/wealth/real-estate/over-1000-realty-developers-keep-dodging-rera-notices/articleshow/67988303.cms
