TNRERA registers 100 projects manually as website faces technical glitches

Chennai:

Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority (TNRERA) has registered manually more than 100 projects as the deadline for registering projects under the the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 came to an end on July 31, 2017.

A top official of TNRERA said that the whole process was done manually as the website is yet to yet to be developed.

“The rules were notified recently and it requires lot of approval to put in place the website. We are trying to set it up in the next couple of weeks,” the official said.

“We are accepting the applications manually and will screen them. This is being done after Union government has asked us to manually register the applications,” the official said.

The uploading of all registered applications will take time, the official said.

Interestingly, the projects are being manually registered by former Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority officials who are now the office-bearers of Real Estate Regulatory Authority. The office of TNRERA is functioning along with that of Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the premises of CMDA.

Experts alleged that the vouched transparency in real estate suffered a blow as buyers are being kept in the dark on the details about projects being registered as all the registrations are being done manually.

High Court appointed Monitoring Committee member of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority M G Deivasahayam said that, “Confusion is the first law of corruption. It has to be done online. There is a hidden agenda,” he said.

Deivasahayam also hit out at the recruitment of former CMDA officials in RERA. “It is like catching the regulator. The regulator has to be independent. Now CMDA will be dictating terms to RERA. It will function as an arm of CMDA,” he said.

Interestingly, planners have cited examples and pointed out how CMDA took control of Koyambedu Market and Iron and Steel Market which was to function independently under the marketing management committee (MMC) as per Specific Commodities Act. However, the powers of both the markets were diluted with CMDA controlling the entire market.

A top TNRERA official defended the move to hire former CMDA officials stating that they have the expertise but Deivasahayam dismissed it as “Jugaad.”

Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) president Suresh Krishn said that most of the developers have submitted the applications manually as the website faced technical glitches.

Factfile:

1. Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 was notified only on June 22

2. The state government failed to act until the Centre ticked the officials off to carry out the registration manually on July.

3. As a result, the authority started manually registering the projects.

4. A website was created only a week later and this failed to function properly after the housing secretary set the deadline to July 31 sparking protests from the developers.