MUMBAI: It has been more than a year since the state housi ng bill was passed by t he President, but the government is yet to appoint a regulatory body to safeguard customers’ interests, as envisaged in the legislation.
The Opposition has accused the government of deliberately ignoring the issue.
The previous Congress-led state government had come to the final stages of framing rules for the implementation of The Maharashtra Housing (Regulation and Development) Act 2012, passed three years ago.
“We could not set up a regulatory authority as the code of conduct came into effect last year, but the present government has completely put it on the back burner. There is hardly any mention of a regulatory body in the draft housing policy,” said Sachin Ahir, former state minister for housing.
The function of the regulatory body is to ensure homebuyers are not taken for a ride by the builders.
Some of the other provisions of the Act include mandatory registration of developers, disclosures of all projects on websites, disallowing diversion of funds to other projects and scope for punitive action, including imprisonment, for builders found flouting rules.
Of f i cials in t he housing department admitted the process of setting up the regulator has taken a backseat. “There are no clear instructions from the government on the regulator, and hence it is stuck,” said an official, who did not wish to be named.
Housing minister Prakash Mehta, however, said the state is serious about setting up the authority.
“We are studying the issue and will set up the regulator shortly,” said Mehta. However, he declined to give a definite time frame for it.
While the state housing bill was approved by the President in 2014, the Central government, too, recently approved the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) bill.
Some of the provisions of the two bills overlap, and the state has said it will accept the guidelines of the Centre’s legislation.
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