Penalty on 14 builders meant to give message, says UP RERA Member

By imposing penalty on 14 promoters recently, the UP RERA wanted to convey a message that the orders issued by the Authority should be taken seriously, said Balvinder Kumar, Member UP RERA, in a short conversation with Realty & More Editor Palash Roy.  Kumar said UP RERA wanted to tell builders that due importance and urgency should be accorded to compliance of orders passed by it from time to time. He also gave details about the Authority’s order on JP Knights Court.

The following is the text of R&M chat with Balvinder Kumar:

Palash Roy: Sir, recently UPRERA gave penalty orders on 14 promoters. Can you give us details on those?

Balvinder Kumar: Everybody knows that we have passed many orders but those have not been compliant by promoters. So to ensure compliance of those orders we had issued notices under Section 63 of the RERA Act and in pursuance to those cases, we have issued recovery orders against many builders. And we also want to tell all builders that due importance and urgency should be accorded to compliance of orders, which have been passed by RERA from time to time. So, I think, by imposing a penalty against certain builders, we want to give a message at large.

PR: You have also passed an order on JP Knights Court. Please give us details about that.

BK: This we have made on the similar lines as we did about Calypso Court of JP Group. Under this arrangement, builders and association of a allotees are coming together and they have agreed to complete their projects under the overall supervision and umbrella of RERA.

Under this, the promoter is required to put some money to initiate the construction and then subsequently the association of buyers will do. They will see to it that the money from buyers, whatever the money has been left, that is also pooled into the funds so that the project is completed. The Calypso Court will take about a year or about 16 months or so for completion. RERA has appointed a consultant, a construction consultant, as well. We will carry out audit from time to time so that the funds are utilised only for the purpose of construction of Knights Court and we hope that this will prove as a good model to complete those projects which are stuck since long.

PR: What is the status of Festival City project?

BK: Regarding Festival City, as you know we have deregistered this project and then subsequently we requested the association of allotee to take over this project and complete it, but they have turned down that proposal. They say that they don’t have adequate resources to complete this project.

So as per the Act, once the association of allotees has declined the offer given by RERA, we have asked Noida Authority to take over this project and complete it. We are awaiting a response from the Noida Authority and depending upon their response, RERA will move ahead. But our priority is to complete this project as early as possible.