Maharashtra introduces housing bill; activists call it eyewash

After years of delay, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday introduced the Maharashtra housing (regulation and promotion of construction, sale, management and transfer) bill 2012 before the state legislature. It is aimed at protecting home buyers from the depredations of builders.

The bill proposes to repeal the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963, and establish a housing regulatory authority (HRA) and a housing appellate tribunal for ensuring effective implementation of the new law. The regulator and tribunal will help promote a planned and healthy development, construction, sale, transfer and management of flats and other housing, the government says.

The HRA would have the powers to levy fines of up to Rs1 crore. The punishment for not registering a project will attract a fine of Rs1,000 per day till it is registered. If a developer fails to deliver on his promise, the fine could go up to Rs50 lakh.

Activists however say the bill has been heavily watered down version of not only the centre's draft real estate (regulation and development) Bill 2011, but also of the state's own earlier version. Particularly, the new bill has no provision for criminal prosecution of errant builders. Moreover, projects with an area of less than 250 sq m will not come under the ambit of the proposed Act.

The Vilasrao Deshmukh government had approved the Maharashtra housing regulatory commission bill back in 2008; but it was then put on the back burner and never introduced in the assembly.

"While the centre's ministry of housing has refused to dilute the provisions for direct jail terms in case of non-compliance, Maharashtra's bill has limited that penalty into a fine of a ranging from Rs1,000 to Rs1 crore," said Ramesh Prabhu, chairman Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association. The fine is virtually peanuts for builders raking in multiples of crores from building projects, he implied.