RERA provides little help to home buyers

Y Maheswara Reddy | NT

Bengaluru: Home buyers in the state are in a dilemma over the recent statements by Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner, Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority Chairman and Minister for Housing on pending cases and the government’s measures to tighten the rules for the benefit of middle-class families.

The home buyers are expecting the authorities concerned to save hapless home buyers from bankrupt and unscrupulous builders. “It is shocking to come across conflicting statements from the authorities concerned. The Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner has said that he needs 10 more years to resolve cases referred to him by the RERA chairman,” said Karnataka Home Buyers’ Forum convenor Dhananjaya Padmanabhachar.

He said the RERA chairman has said the Deputy Commissioner is responsible to implement orders passed by the RERA but the authorities concerned are not helping home buyers. “The RERA records state that thousands of cases are in progress for the last two years. The adjudicating officer has to pass orders within 60 days under the Section 71/2 of RERA Act 2016. When there is no objection from the builders, why is the RERA sitting on those complaints without passing the orders,” he said.

According to Raghunathan KC, president of The Greens Buyers’ Association has said the RERA has to send 2450 orders to the Deputy Commissioner for recovering the land or penalty from the erring builders. “The RERA has claimed to have solved 3067 cases but sent only 617 resolved cases to the DC. When will 2,450 cases be resolved if the DC needs 10 years to resolve 617 cases?” asks Raghunathan.

He demands the state government to provide the required manpower to the RERA and the Deputy Commissioner to solve all the pending cases. “Let the government establish a special task force to recover land and penalty from erring builders,” he said.

M.S. Shankar, a RERA activist and the secretary of Fight for RERA-Forum for People’s Collective Efforts has ridiculed State Housing Minister V. Somanna’s claim of having implemented strict norms for the welfare of middle-class families. “We have been demanding the state government to introduce a law in the interest of middle-class families,” said Shankar.

Coming down heavily on the state government’s apathy and negligence to provide manpower to the RERA, he said the Karnataka Lokayukta has seven adjudicating officers while the RERA has one. “The Karnataka Lokayukta is a prosecuting authority against corrupt government officials while RERA is a regulatory authority of real estate transactions. I want the state government to appoint more adjudicators to the RERA in the interest of thousands of home buyers,” he said.