Rera slaps 55 notices

Patna: The Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Rera), Bihar, has served 55 showcause notices to 16 real estate companies in the past week for non-registration of projects and booking apartments or plots in violation of provisions.

R.B. Sinha, a member of Rera Bihar, told The Telegraph on Sunday that projects located in Patna, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur, Bhojpur and Rohtas have violated provisions of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016.

The Bihar authority used its own sources to gather information about these projects and then served the showcause notices. While at least 30 of the projects are being executed in Patna, some are in Bhagalpur.

“We have given the defaulters two weeks to come up with a detailed reply. In case they fail, punitive action will be initiated,” Sinha said.

According to the rules, if any promoter fails to register his/her project with Rera, s/he will be liable to a penalty which might extend up to 10 per cent of the estimated project cost. Continued violation will attract harsher action.

After its inception earlier this year, Rera Bihar has taken several steps to regulate the real estate market and has started the process of hiring a professional agency to provide it authentic information about ongoing projects across Bihar.

The authority has written letters to the registration department, urging it not to allow registration of flats which are part of projects not registered with it.

It recently came up with a directive, asking builders to display prominently the names of the project, promoter, Rera registration number and information on start and end of projects at construction sites.

“We stand for ushering in complete transparency in the state’s real estate sector and our effort is to safeguard the people’s interests. Even genuine builders and developers will be benefited by effective regulation of the market as the essence of the Act is not to coerce anyone,” said Rera Bihar member Sinha.

Courtesy: The Telegraph