Some builders could go to jail under RERA: Hardeep Singh Puri

Dec 08,2017

Some builders could go to jail under RERA: Hardeep Singh Puri

All incomplete and ongoing housing projects will also be covered under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), Bombay High Court ruled on Thursday.

Some states such as Haryana and Uttar Pradesh had reportedly refrained from keeping ongoing projects under the ambit of RERA. Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who was speaking at the Idea Exchange programme, said there is no scope to loosen the regulation for any realty project, adding, “They (states which have diluted the law) will have to comply. I have already taken it up with them”.

In Haryana, ongoing projects were not included in RERA while in UP, ongoing projects that had applied for competition certifications were excluded.
The housing ministry had already written to various state governments regarding this.

The court, however, permitted the RERA authority to grant an extension of time to developers on a case-to-case basis for such projects. The court said the authority must not cancel any project or developer's registration where delay has been caused due to exceptional or compelling circumstances.

While Puri said the developers should be given a chance, defaulting builders will not be spared. Some builders will have to go to jail, a Financial Express report said quoting Puri.

On effectiveness of RERA, Puri said it has just been six months since implementation, but it is going in the right direction with builders appealing in court to challenge RERA decisions. While there are initial hiccups, affordable housing scheme as well as strict action will help in cleaning the real estate sector.

RERA, which was implemented on May 1, seeks to protect the interests of home buyers and also boost investments in the real estate sector.
The advent of 5G and new services that it would usher, will spawn fresh job opportunities in the market, requiring suitable skilling of manpower in new technologies, Telecom Secretary K Rajaraman said on Wednesday.

Rajaraman, who was speaking at an event of Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC), said that from BharatNet to space communications, and from 5G to fixedline broadband services, the telecom sector would unlock new job requirements of various categories.

He exhorted the industry to look closely at creation of the talent pipeline to address these emerging opportunities. "5G growth will come from number of use case it would permit in various industrial settings...5G, because of nature of technology and capability it offers, will open up new range of skills," Rajaraman said. "

The top DoT official affirmed that 5G will spur jobs in areas like Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Internet of Things and other areas. Fixed wireline broadband too, where penetration levels are low, in fact, far below the global benchmarks, has the clear headroom for double-digit growth, he pointed out.

"Soon we hope to address the policy constraints which are facing fixed wireline industry and see how we can provide the push needed to take the industry forward," he said adding that the high growth rates can absolutely be afforded given the potential and the current small base. "...the jobs that can be provided, are phenomenal," he emphasised.