Yogi says committed to cleaning up the real estate sector

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday launched the official website of the Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (UPRERA), where homebuyers will be able to lodge complaints against erring builders.

The website will also enable the builders to register their projects as RERA compliant.

“I am sure the hi-tech portal will go a long way in bridging the trust deficit between the homebuyers and builders and by ensuring prompt and timely delivery of projects,” the CM said at the launch of the website: up-rera.in at his residence.

Adityanath said his government was committed to cleaning up the real estate sector beset by problems of delayed projects with the help of this law.

“We will safeguard homebuyers’ interests, but at the same time also ensure timely resolution of grievances and problems being faced by the builders to promote an investor-friendly climate in the state,” he said.

Principal secretary, housing, Mukul Singhal claimed that the web portal developed by the government was one of its kind in the country. “There is no human interface, right from the time of applying, lodging a complaint to issuing of registration certificate to the builder,” he said.

RERA was notified in October 2016 but came into force on May 1 this year. July 31 was the cut-off date for the registration of all ongoing projects. But the Yogi Adityanath government, which accused the SP government of diluting the law in favour of builders, is yet to notify the new rules and appoint key officers to make authority fully functional.

A majority of the real estate projects do not come under the ambit of RERA going by the definition of ‘ongoing projects’ enumerated in the rules drafted during the SP regime. No wonder homebuyers expressed surprise that despite Adityanath’s instructions , officials were yet to frame rules in the true spirit of the law. “Yogiji had said that UP will adopt and enact the Central government RERA as it is. I saw the new RERA website. It still has the old rules, which provide exit routes for the developers and builders. Is it a mistake or stabbing the buyers once again?” asks Manu Mathur, who is part of a group of 300 other buyers which claims that they have been cheated by a big firm.

BUILDERS, AGENTS THRONG THE PORTAL

Builders and real estate agents thronged the UPRERA portal barely hours after its launch. The website got more than 20,000 hits, put information related to projects of 205 promoters, four developers from Lucknow and eight from NOIDA and two from Varanasi, who had got their projects registered with it. While no immediate figures were available of complaints from homebuyers, 83 real estate agents had also got themselves registered on day one. “The time has now come for home-buyers to demand UPRERA registration number from builders before booking a flat,” said an official.