Hindustan Times (Amritsar)

Buyers to protest RERA ‘dilution’

- HT Correspond­ent letterschd@hindustant­imes.com

GURGAON: City homebuyers are thinking of holding a major protest against the Ha ryan a government for passing what they feel is a dilution of the Centre’s Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) Act.

Homebuyers are not happy with the provision in Haryana-RERA( H-RERA) wherein projects that have been granted occupation certificat­e (OC) are exempt from R ERA am bit. They feel that this provides an escape route to developers.

The resentment comes after the unexpected approval of H-R ERA by the Ha ryan a cabinet on Tuesday evening. According to homebuyers, the cabinet approved the rules diluted by the town and country planning( TCP) department.

According to provisions of the Central RERA Act, developers who obtained completion certificat­es (CC) for their projects before May 1, 2017, will be out of the RERA ambit. However, in Ha ryan a, this is possible with just an OC, which can be obtained much earlier and with more ease than a CC.

“It’s unfortunat­e that in Haryan a the Central R ERA Act lost its sole purpose of helping tens of thousands of home buyers. I wish instead of buying a home in Gurgaon, I had bought one in Bi h ar or Odis ha where a strong R ERA has been notified. Why were homebuyers’ suggestion­s not considered? The government must reply and give us solid reasons for not incorporat­ing our suggestion to not accept getting an OC as a reason for exemption from RERA,” said Prakhar Sahay, president, Estella Welfare Associatio­n.

He said homebuyers will hold a major protest soon after the Act is published or notified. A number of people waiting for possession of long-delayed flats to be given by builders are active on social media and are planning to persuade a large number of disgruntle­d homebuyers to participat­e in the protest.

The Act is yet to be notified by the government, but it seems the OC provision has been made just to give builders adequate time, said a buyer. Abhinav Trivedi, a home buyer in B PT P Park Generation­s, said ,“H-R ERA is nothing but an eyewash and a very clever way to help builders. It was already delayed and now these diluted rules will help builders buy time to save money on their delayed projects.

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