Interest of home buyers supreme: CM Promises more teeth to RERA

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the interest of those who gave their life-time earnings to a builder with a dream to have their own home was of paramount importance for him.

“Such people are victims of double whammy. Despite all the money being stuck, they also have to pay the bank loan. However, this does not mean that we will neglect the interest of other sectors associated with the real estate. If builders fulfil their promises made to the customers in a transparent manner, then they will also be given all possible help as per rules. If this happens, the real estate sector will once again recover from recession and touch new heights,” the Chief Minister said, addressing the first national conclave of Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan here on Monday.

Yogi Adityanath said that having one’s own house was associated with self-reliance. He gave the example of Ayodhya resident Mahabir Harijan, a mason whose fate changed after he received money from PM Housing Scheme.

The Chief Minister pointed out that people migrated to cities for better basic facilities. “If they do not get the required facilities, they stop trusting the government. The government is taking several measures so that such situation does not arise. Expansion of Metro services, efforts to make all the nagar nigams smart cities is part of this attempt,” he said.

The Chief Minister said that previous governments had developed a myth about visiting Noida.

“It was a conspiracy by those who had either invested their black money in Noida, Greater Noida or near Yamuna Expressway or were patronising such people for their own personal interest,” he said.

“Maximum 80 per cent complaints regarding not getting possession of house even after paying the entire amount has been received from eight districts of the state. After meeting a few victims and the builders, I understood about the myth of Noida. I believe that political and administrative dishonesty is also at the root of the mess in this sector. Either the money received from the buyers was distributed by the culprits among themselves or it was invested in some other sector. A visit by any compassionate person to the area could have exposed the culprits who divided the money among themselves. Thus, there has been a propaganda against Noida,” he said

The Chief Minister praised the work done by RERA till now and assured more teeth to it to further improve the functioning of the regulatory authority. He said the government would announce some more measures soon to strengthen the regulatory authority and make the real estate sector full of potential again.

He said that there were about three lakh home buyers who could not get their accommodation for the past 10 years and through dialogue, without exerting any pressure, the government was able to get accommodation for one lakh buyers in Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway in the one year.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister of State for Urban Development Hardeep Singh Puri said, “Before RERA came into existence, corruption was prevalent in this real estate sector and this sector, with immense potential after agriculture, was unorganised.

“Within a year of coming to power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi organised the sector through RERA. Earlier, four regional conclaves on RERA were held but this is the first national conclave and it will now be held every year,” he said.

“On the conclusion drawn from the conclaves, we will make RERA more effective and transparent. We are going to launch Model Tenancy Act and Real Estate E-Commerce Portal soon. My aim is to change the course of urbanisation in the coming times,” the Union minister said. He also lauded the UP government for setting milestones in every field.

Secretary, Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Durga Shankar Mishra, said as everyone dreams of a roof, every person was linked to this sector. “There will be a need to build houses in 900 square kilometre area every year in order to make everyone’s dream come true. The sector contributes about 8 per cent to the GDP. The sector holds fifth position among the sectors receiving money through foreign investment. A total of 50 crore people will get employment in this sector by 2030 while 80 crore people will be employed by 2050. The aim of RERA is to see that the sector achieves its target by working in a better way,” he said.

RERA Chairman Rajeev Kumar, Principal Secretary RK Tiwari, Abhay Upadhyay, Praveen Jain, Gautam Chatterjee and J Shah also spoke on solutions besides giving suggestions. They said there was need to form trust among buyers and builders while pointing out to lack of liquidity, banks’ apathy towards lending money, time-bound delivery, especially to investors whose money is stuck and the need to expand the rights of RERA.

Representatives of RERA from more than one and a half dozen states, others related to the sector and representatives from educational institutions were present during the meet.