RERA: Centre to send special team to six northeastern states to resolves issues

The Centre will send a special team to six northeastern states later this week to resolve issues pertaining to the implementation of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016.

An official of the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry said that the six northeastern states -- Arunchal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim -- have not notified the legislation and its rules so far due to land and other issues.

The act, which provides proper protection to home-buyers, was enacted by Parliament and states were given powers to notify their respective rules and appoint regulatory authorities.

"There are some land issues with regard to the implementation of RERA that's why six northeastern states have not notified the act.

"To resolve all these issues which are coming in the way of enforcing the law, a special team of the ministry will go to these states on October 26," the official said.

According to the official, the ministry team will have meetings with officials of these six states and address their concern regarding implementation of the central real estate law.

The official said 13 states have so far appointed a permanent regulator, while 14 have interim regulators.

As many as 22 states have functional web portals under the RERA. According to an official figure last week, 32,923 real estate projects have been registered under the act across the country.

Also, 25,247 real estate agents have been registered under the central real estate law.

On West Bengal implementing its own real estate law -- the Housing and Industrial Regulation Act, 2017 (HIRA), Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra recently wrote to the state government asking it to repeal its own act as there is already a central law on the same subject.

Last month, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had also made it clear that there is no ambiguity when it comes to implementation of the central law and states have to conform to it.

Asked about 60 developers already being registered under the West Bengal's HIRA, Puri had said, "They (West Bengal government) can register. If you pass a faulty law and if it is not found to be legal, I do not want to go further than that.