No RERA in sight even six months after rules notified

HYDERABAD: Prospective home buyers have charged the Telangana government with delaying the formation of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) under pressure from the real estate lobby. Though the RERA rules were notified six months ago, the state government has not constituted a full-fledged regulatory authority and not created a website for receiving online complaints.
"At a time when several people were duped by builders and projects such as Aliens Space Station-I, the state government should have implemented the Act without any delay.But it is acting total contrary to this. It has also gave exemption to ongoing projects, which is against the spirit of RERA," Abhay Upadhyay, national convenor of Fight for RERA and central advisor on RERA under the ministry of urban development, told STOI.

The Centre brought about the RERA Act mainly to protect the interests of buyers. The Act also provides transparency and adjudicating mechanisms for speedy dispute redressal. "The state government should immediately repeal the TS RERA rules and replace it with new rules in compliance with the Central RERA Act without any changes," said BT Srinivasan, vice-president of the Forum for People's Collective Efforts (FPCE), a body representing the pan-Indian fight for RERA.
Citing the example of thousands of home-buyers who have allegedly been cheated by prominent builders like Aliens Group, Aditya Projects and Lodha to name a few, the FPCE pointed out that even though it is close to two years since the RERA was enacted, Telangana was yet to appoint a permanent RERA and that the continuance of an interim authority was in contravention of the Central Act. Furthermore, the state is also yet to appoint a Real Estate Appellate Authority.
Residential welfare organizations say the Centre originally asked all the states to bring RERA rules into effect from May 1, 2017. But the state took three more months and announced on August 1, 2017. Even after the delay, the rules have not become operational. A temporary regulatory authority was named under Rajeshwar Tiwari, special chief secretary, in January this year. But the office has not started any work.
MAUD principal secretary Aravind Kumar, in a reply to BT Srinivasan, tweeted that the process of setting up TS RERA was kicked off in all seriousness a fortnight ago, with a team of three top planners and an IT expert visiting Karnataka and Maharashtra to understand the best practices. The system will be 100% online-based and the process will be in motion shortly, he added.