After a long delay, the Haryana Government has finally approved Haryana Real Estate Regulation and Development Rules (RERA) 2017.
The cabinet which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar lal approved the final Haryana (Regulation and Development), Rules 2017 on Tuesday. The decision assumes significance as the State has a history of land scams involving influential persons.
“Haryana Town and Country Planning Department had in April notified draft rules under Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 and received as many as 1,874 suggestions and objections from promoters and their respective associations, allottees welfare associations and individuals over it,” said senior Minister Ram Bilas Sharma while talking to the mediapersons. He said the final rules were approved in the cabinet after discussion.
As per the rules, the definition of term “ongoing project” means a project for which a license was issued for the development under the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Area Act, 1975 on or before May 1, 2017 and where development works were yet to be completed on the said date.
But it does not include that part of any project for which part completion or completion, occupation certificate or part thereof has been granted on or before publication of these rules, he added.
Notably, the Central Government had earlier pulled up the Haryana Government for not implementing RERA in time and also warned it against diluting the central Act.
Haryana Government had reportedly tweaked the definition of “ongoing projects” exempting several delayed projects from the purview of the Act.
In May, the Minister of State for Housing, Rao Inderjeet Singh had pulled up the Town and Country Planning Department of Haryana for the delay in notifying the draft rules and had also asked the State Government not to dilute provisions of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act as this would deprive home buyers of ongoing projects the benefits of this legislation framed to protect their interests.
The RERA Central Act was implemented from May 1, 2017 and according to the Act, every builder will have to register itself with the RERA in case it has not obtained completion or occupation certificates from the competent authority. Under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, every state and UTs must have its own regulator and developers will not be able to market their projects, both ongoing or new, till they register with either the permanent or interim regulators.