NE states agree to implement RERA

NEW DELHI, Nov 18: Nearly two years after the Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA) was enacted by Parliament, six northeastern states have finally agreed to implement the law, paving way for protecting the interests of home-buyers in these states.
Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim had failed to notify the RERA due to land and other issues.
The development comes after a team of the union housing & urban affairs (HUA) ministry visited the northeastern states on 26 October and held a workshop with their representatives and discussed the issues coming in the way of notifying the act.
“Northeastern states have agreed to implement RERA. We are helping them in notifying the RERA rules,” HUA Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra told PTI.
Sources said representatives of these states had some issues about the implementation of the RERA, but the ministry officials cleared all their doubts in the last month’s workshop.
The act, which provides proper protection to home buyers, was enacted by Parliament in 2016. The states were given powers to notify their respective rules and appoint regulatory authorities.
All states and union territories in the country had notified the rules under the RERA, except the six northeastern states and West Bengal. The act is not applicable in Jammu & Kashmir.
According to the ministry, 33,750 real estate projects have been registered under the RERA, while 26,018 agents have been registered across the country.
Instead of implementing the RERA, West Bengal had notified its own real estate law – the Housing and Industrial Regulation Act, 2017 (HIRA).
Mishra had written to the Bengal government, asking it to repeal its own act as there was already a central law on the subject. (PTI)