A real estate regulator will enforce public disclosure and bring in much needed transparency and accountability in the sector and there is overwhelming support for setting up such an entity, housing and urban poverty alleviation minister Kumari Selja said on Wednesday, Jan 11.
Speaking at the National Consultation on the Draft Real Estate (Development and Regulation) Bill, the minister said the fast track dispute resolution mechanism is expected to speed up delivery of justice, which would further augment credibility, and facilitate larger investments in the sector in the long run.
She said regulators in the key sectors such as power, telecom, banking, insurance and others have boosted growth in these sectors. The minister said the Real Estate Regulation and (Development) Bill 2011 also attempts at building confidence within investor and clients.
Addressing the meeting Kumari Selja said that the Bill attempts to carefully balance the interests of both the consumers and the developers by imposing certain clear responsibilities on both of them.
She said the Real Estate Regulator seeks to enforce public disclosure and brings in much needed transparency and accountability, while ensuring an enabling environment. The Bill also attempts at building confidence within investor and clients. Further, along with the mandatory public disclosure, the first track dispute resolution mechanism is expected to speed up delivery of justice, which would further augment credibility, and facilitate larger investments in this sector in the long run.
The minister drew the attention of the participants to the fact that the setting up Regulators in the key sectors like power, telecom, banking, insurance and others has in fact been instrumental in catalyzing growth in these sectors.
Kumari Selja said that the draft bill has received more than 700 responses from various stake holders. She said, while there are differences in opinion regarding the precise modalities of the regulation, the majority have endorsed the need for a Real Estate Regulator.
Arun Kumar Misra, Secretary, HUPA, presented the salient features of the Bill, and stated that the objective of the consultation was to elicit feedback from stake-holders for evolving a robust and effective Bill.
The Bill, which has been framed as a Central legislation, aims at establishing a uniform regulatory environment for the Real Estate sector in the country to safeguard the interests of consumers and to promote planned and orderly growth of the real estate and housing sectors.
The Bill provides for the establishment of a State level Regulatory Authority in each state and aims to institute transparency and accountability in real estate and housing transactions by enforcing mandatory public disclosure, standardization and fair practices.
While the sector has grown rapidly in recent years, much of this growth has been unregulated, with complaints of malpractices and lack of proper accountability on the part of builders and developers. The absence of standardization and professionalism has also constrained the orderly development of the industry.
The Bill is expected to ensure greater accountability towards consumers, significantly reduce frauds and delays, and pave the way for accelerated investments and growth of the industry in the long term.
1 Comment
When ruling party leaders have deliberately been preventing the implementation of suggested amendments to the Consumer Protection Act and of tough legislations to rein in builders and empower consumers, have stayed a landmark order in the CCI against a big builder, are setting up special courts to favour rich & powerful companies, have been obstructing investigations into cases involving big builders & preventing their conviction in scams, lobbying ferociously for corporate crooks, participating in realty conventions hosted by multiple-scam-tainted companies like Unitech to discuss a ‘regulator and how difficult it will be for real estate players to operate …in presence of that regulator’ (TOI,16 dec 2012), then the public can well imagine to what extent such a bill (whose was earlier versions were turned down on grounds of being heavily tilted in favour of realtors) ‘is aimed at ensuring greater accountability towards consumers’ and will ‘significantly reduce frauds and delays’. All such bills put up the ruling party are in no way intended to ‘safeguard the interests of consumers’; but rather to encourage their exploitation and to immunize their economically and politically influential exploiters.