Bring real estate bill to Parliament for passage soon: Panel

To provide relief to consumers in an "unregulated" real estate sector, a parliamentary panel has asked the Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) Ministry to urgently bring the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2013 to Parliament for its passage.
In a report presented today in Lok Sabha, the Standing Committee on Urban Development headed by BJD MP Pinaki Misra said the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill was introduced in Parliament on August 14 last year after wide consultations with all stakeholders.
The Bill was then referred to the Standing Committee on Urban Development for examination and after having wide consultations an objective report was given to Parliament in February, 2014.

The Committee in its report said that they were informed by the HUPA Ministry that it had consultations with the stakeholders, expert bodies, ministries, states, etc. On September 19 this year.
It is now proposed to finalise the draft Cabinet Note for inter-ministerial comments on the proposed official amendments before moving the Union Cabinet for approving the amendments in the Bill, the panel added.
It said that in view of the above perspective, the Committee strongly feel that the Ministry should avoid duplication of work resulting in delaying the reintroduction of Bill in the Parliament because real estate sector is highly unregulated and the common man is being harassed by the builders and their associations.

"Therefore, the Committee strongly recommend the Ministry to expedite the matter and to urgently bring this Bill to be passed by the Parliament in order to give relief to the common masses who are being continually harassed at the hands of unscrupulous builders' lobby," the panel said in its report.
In its report, the Committee criticised the preparation activities during Phase I of Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) saying they were tardy. It noted that that the Ministry is in the process of developing a new scheme to cater to housing for all by 2022.