Homebuyers under the aegis of ‘Fight for RERA’ met the Union Minister of State for Housing, Rao Inderjit Singh, on Wednesday to voice concerns about builder-centric rules in the draft real estate regulation Bill. Concerns were raised specifically over ongoing projects.

These rules, according to Abhay Upadhyay, National Convenor of the organisation, go against the interest of home buyers who are stuck in delayed projects.

The group, led by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a member of the Rajya Sabha Select Committee on the Real Estate Bill, included Lt Gen Satish Bahri from Gurgaon, MS Shankar and Murlidhar Rao from Bengaluru, BT Srinivasan from Hyderabad, Ramesh Prabhu from Mumbai, Col T P Tyagi from Ghaziabad and OP Bangur from Kolkata.

The group also met Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Joint Secretary, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry, to apprise him of the same.

‘Fight for RERA’, mobilised key political support in favour of the Bill in March. It consists of over 50 homebuyers association across the country and several NGOs too. The group has been running a campaign on Twitter for quite some time now.

According to Upadhyay, for stalled projects to restart and complete, it is important that a provision where 70 per cent of the money realised from allotees are kept into separate account to cover cost of construction be enforced strictly; especially for ongoing projects.

“We stressed that the promoter should deposit 70 per cent of the money realised from the allottees (of ongoing projects) and that this rule be enforced in all seriousness,” he said.

“In any case, the promoter has to arrange for funds to complete their projects and hence this provision will be a binding one; and not let them defer it indefinitely as is the case at present,” he added.

Fight for RERA has also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and reached out to Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi for a meeting on the topic. The organisation has also met Union Urban Development Minister, M Venkaiah Naidu.

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