CHENNAI: There are a few links in the website of Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority (TNRERA) that never open. Incidentally, all these dysfunctional links are under the tab “Organisation”, which must explain the workflow, members of the authority and their specific roles and responsibilities.
People in the know say that this is not just a bug in the website’s coding, but a lack of transparency in who get appointed and what role they play in the newly-formed authority. The main role of the authority is to address the disputes between buyers and builders.
Given the huge size of the real estate industry and the issues that plague it, the authority’s role could be crucial for many home buyers. But what has raised concerns is the lack of clear roles and responsibilities of the authority’s officials and this could make the entire exercise of ushering in transparency and accountability in the realty sector a failure.
Association of Professional Town Planners (APTP) president KM Sadanand said the regulatory body had just recruited a few people and the process lacked transparency. “Most of those appointed are former Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) officials,” Sadanand said.
Pointing out that most of these former officials are urban planners and hence their expertise is not in construction or legal contracts, he said that TNRERA had been constituted to settle disputes between buyer and the developer and hence people with urban planning experience are not the ones who suit the bill.
“Mostly it would be on whether the clause of agreement has been adhered to or not or whether the construction is as per the parameters mentioned in the plan,” he said.
So ideally people with legal background or bankers or even architects should be the ones recruited by the authority. “During the hearing on the Moulivakkam building collapse, the CMDA itself had conceded in the court that it is just a planning body and does not have any idea about column strength or soil analysis or other basic things pertaining to construction. Then on what basis they want the planners, who are not technically qualified, to adjudge the disputes between the builder and buyer,” Sadanand reasoned.
CMDA Monitoring Committee member MG Deivasahayam said that the concept is inspired by the United States. “But those selected (in the US) were thorough independent professionals from the private and government sector. In India, it is being created to save the government from being accountable,” said Deivasahayam. “The government should appoint those who are exceptionally qualified and independent professionals. They should also appoint engineers,” he said.
Status of RERA
(as on Aug 31)
Date of notification: June 22
No. of applications for project registration (As on Aug 31) 214
No of projects registered: 44
No of applications for agent registration: 85
No of agents registered: 48
No of complaints registered: 2