No. of RERA members likely to rise to cope with complaints

Even as developers pull up their socks to register themselves on the Real Estate Regulation Act website, the members of the state nodal authority are likely to be increased in keeping with the number of complaints registered.

The Mumbai Grahak Panchayat committee on Saturday made several recommendations for the RERA act including questioning the adequacy of the members of the regulatory.

The committee had held a consumer awareness programme to give a clarity on the RERA act. According to sources, RERA’s interim chairman Gautam Chatterjee will be requesting the state government for appointing more members for the regulatory.

According to the RERA act, the authority shall consist of a chairperson and not less than two whole time members to be appointed by the state government. The chairperson and other members of the authority will be appointed by the state government on the recommendations of a selection committee consisting of the Chief Justice of the High Court or his nominee the secretary of the department dealing with housing and the law secretary.

Speaking exclusively to the Free Press Journal, Chatterjee said a single member of the regulatory will be empowered to address a hearing on any given dispute.

He added, “The hearings of the cases need not be heard by a panel of one or more members but, any member of the authority can address multiple issues. This will reduce the piling of complaints and can ease the duration of a judgement.”

Statistics show that about 37,000 complaints, of home buyers, are pending in various consumer redressal forums. Surprisingly, Mumbai, the financial capital of India alone accounts for 15,000-odd cases. Currently, the MGP committee is in preparation of submitting its suggestions for the RERA act to the government to make the act more consumer-friendly.