RERA why the apathy?

THE REAL ESTATE (REGULATION AND DEVELOPMENT) ACT, 2016 is an act brought in to safe

guard the purchasers from being taken for a ride by the promoters. There were too many such instances around NCR which prompted the Central Government to bring in this law.

This law has been pronounced in 2016 and became a law in all the states with respective state promulgating their own Act. However, if one reads the main Act and the various state versions there is a certain amount of dilution by the state governments for the reasons best known to them.

To prevent money being misused it was mandated to set up Escrow accounts to keep the money in those accounts and only a part of the amount was allowed to be used by the promoter for construction based on certification by authorised persons like Chartered Engineer/Architect etc. This is one reason many a promoter is reluctant to Register his project with RERA.

RERA insists on submitting a list of products and makes/Brands that are proposed to be used in the construction and expects the promoter to use the same. However, what has been submitted by the promoter is not known to the buyers and the intended transparency is lost here.

One of the main criteria for qualifying for registration with respective state RERA is more than 8 flats or 500 Sq Mt land area on which development is taking place. Then how come most projects which fit into this norm are not registered with RERA. RERA though very powerful is understaffed. It is impossible to monitor development that is taking place in the entire state. What is more surprising is this body is under the aegis of the Ministry for Urban Development & Municipalities. Practically every building including an independent house is mandated to take planning permission from the Local body.

Under these circumstances why there is no integration between RERA & Respective local body, more so when both are under the same ministry. Every plan approval which qualifies for registration with RERA should be automatically shared to RERA by the local body. All guideline sheets issued to the promoter by the Local body should set a deadline for RERA registration in the guideline sheet and enforce it. 

Enforcement is much easier for a Local body as they mortgage 10% of the project size with themselves and no promoter can afford to lose the 10% of his project to the government. Occupation certificate which is given when the building is completed releases this 10%, but not having a RERA registration will compulsorily not make the promoter qualify for Occupation Certificate/No Objection Certificate/Completion Certificate (as they are called in different states)
.

As usual the consumer education is little or negligible. Is a buyer really concerned about what is good for him, this is a million dollar question and leaves one wondering, is our Nation full of compromisers. Here is an Act brought out in the interest of the consumer / Home Buyer and they hardly ask the promoter any question regarding RERA registration and or easily convinced by the reply of the promoter. As long as the projects are getting completed, buyer is relatively safe, Alas if there is any Hiccup he will find it difficult to deal with the promoter who would be mightier by size.

Consumer should be able to check about the projects RERA registration status just like how one checks their PNR. The moment an enquiry comes from a mobile phone a OTP should be sent out to the number which is seeking to know the status of the registration. Once the OTP is matched Project registration details as submitted by the promoter should be sent out to the prospective buyer including the GPS location of the project. Any misuse of the information by competitors could be made a punishable offence as a deterrent for misuse.

Banks do ask for RERA registration particulars to approve the project for Home loan sanction process. However, there is no such requirement prescribed for single file processing by the financial institution. 

RERA & Local Body should insist on prominent display of the RERA registration Number and the Plan Sanction Number of the local body at the project site. Any deviation from this should attract a substantial penalty. 

It is interesting to note the effectiveness of RERA seems to be quite strong in the states ruled by the BJP while few other states seem to be lagging in the implementation of the RERA Act in its entirety. One could visit the state RERA websites like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh etc in comparison with states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan the intent to help the consumer is absent in few states while the purpose of this Act is well demonstrated in other states.

Unless the State becomes a protector of the consumer ensuring there is no undue bias towards the wealthy promoters who could contribute to the party fund, consumer will never win.

It is important such an important Consumer centric Act is not diluted by vested interests, who are happy to make some money.  Once all projects get automatically reported to the RERA by the Local bodies, there will be drastic improvement in compliance. Let RERA not become a money spinner for few and be a protector of the consumer as was intended while bringing out the law.

Good Morning Ji

We Indians seem to be not tired at all in sending Good Morning messages. I was watching a show, where they talked about these GM messages slowing down the internet and they went on to say our population helps in adding to the problem

We have plenty of people typically new comers to the internet keen to share the knowledge which they have just gained as enthusiastically as only they could be. On top of it these are the people who are part of family groups or their own Alumni groups. They have so much of time the limit of 5 forwards per turn is just not a deterrent.

While it is easy to blame them for slowing down the internet, we have to look at their compulsions for doing what they are doing.

1. They are typically reached a state of mind of a retiree and are finding lots of time at their disposal.

2. They have moved away from a routine and need to occupy themselves with activity

3. Smart phone makes their life easier to connect with people

4. Calling may not be an option as they don't know what the other person is doing

5. Reading as a habit has died down

6. TV is dominated by the lady of the house

As we get, we forward, we are so confident that what our friend has just shared is the absolute truth and most believable news. Our confidence in what we receive makes us forget that February has typically 28 days and all days come four times a month and stupidly think it comes only once in 823 years. Common sense be koi cheese hai bhai

Many of us are not aware of the rules framed under the IT Act and innocently forward fake news too, putting ourselves in the danger of being punished for our probable innocence.

Based on the community, we have now designed ‘message for the day’ Starting from Monday till Sunday with a God’s image/symbol added to the well designed message. You can be rest assured these are forwarded with impunity and needless compulsion.

Thanks to the developers of messaging platforms like WhatsApp we have disappearing messages just to ensure chat thread is cleaned up on regular basis. Due to these needless forwards many an admin is forced to set the group with disappearing messages. Only con is we might miss out on important communication as they too get disappeared.

Family groups which have a mixture of age groups have a different kind of problem. If they restrict forwards, compulsive people feel suffocated, what remains is the greetings for birthdays and anniversaries. An admins job becomes very delicate in such situations as it is family after all.

If we dont forward will we miss out on something, absolutely nothing, we feel keeping in touch is posting good morning messages. No that is not true, we can find many ways to share information as to how we manage a day.

• We could talk about our family and encourage other to do so

• We could share the joy of good tidings within the family and get friends to respond

• We could exchange meaningful banter based on the closeness with the other person

• Avoid topics on politics and religion in a group as all of us may not share the same ideology

• Alert friends about how a neighbour/self got cheated in the ‘online’ age and how they could learn from this experience

• Encourage the silent to express (they choose to be silent when there is too much of junk shared)

• Puzzles/riddles are a good way to engage all age groups, they respond too

• Talk about your activity and how you keep yourself engaged this could motivate others to emulate

• Ensure short communication to make it easy to read and comprehend, avoid long stories

• Share jokes not pictures (cartoons), pictures occupy larger space in the recipient’s phone

• Vulgarity, abuse is avoidable in all groups

We have to make it a habit of the following:

• Sending Good Morning messages is not the only way to tell your friends that you are alive and kicking

• Forwards are not a measure of your intelligence or social commitment, so avoid forwarding everything and anything

• Cross check the news/incident/event before you forward

• You can ‘react’ instead of ‘replying’ to messages which you receive, saves space

• Spread cheer instead of sorrow/grief

Ji, let us stop slowing down the internet, let us improve our bonding with family & friends, Trust this effort of mine will make at least one person change his messaging habit.

Cheers n bye