Home buyers body urges Centre for implementation of RERA in Bengal

NEW DELHI: Even two and a half months after the Supreme Court ordered West Bengal to implement the real estate regulation law (RERA) and held the state’s law WB-HIRA as “unconstitutional”, the state is yet to comply with the order.
The organisation which challenged the West Bengal government’s own version of the real estate law has now written to the housing ministry to address the issue, citing no hearing of home buyers’ complaints in the state since May 5.
In a letter addressed to the Union housing and urban affairs secretary, the Forum for People’s Collective Efforts (FPCE) has said the delay in implementation in RERA in West Bengal is causing immense hardship to home buyers and people can’t file fresh complaints as well.
“It was imperative upon West Bengal government to take immediate necessary steps to implement the decision of the Supreme Court and constitute the regulatory authority, appellate tribunal and adjudicating officer and also to make subordinate rules and host a platform for detailed project/agent information under the Act, in letter and spirit as envisaged under RERA,” Abhay Upadhyay, president of FPCE said in the letter.
FPCE, which was earlier known as Fight for RERA, played a key role in raising the demand for enacting the RERA.
Upadhyay has highlighted how the online hearings of WB-HIRA that were scheduled to be held on May 6 and May 7 and subsequent dates have also been adjourned until further order. “Such indefinite adjournment is causing immense hardship to homebuyers as justice is being delayed and those considering filing fresh cases have nowhere to go. The limbo has created a vacuum of any kind of grievance redressal mechanism for homebuyers in West Bengal,” the letter said.