NEW DELHI: In the wake of West Bengal notifying its own real estate act, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri has made it clear that there is no ambiguity when it comes to implementation of the central law and states have to conform to it. Puri said that a letter has been written to the state government on the issue.
Sources said that the Centre has asked the West Bengal government to repeal its real state act, as there is already a central law on the same subject. The West Bengal government has notified its Housing and Industrial Regulation Act, 2017 (HIRA) instead of implementing the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) 2016 Act enacted by Parliament. Under the central act, states need to form Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) which provides proper protection to home buyers.
“We have sent a letter (to West Bengal). There is no ambiguity when the Centre passes a law. The states have to conform to that,” Puri said on the sidelines of an event here. Asked about 60 developers already being registered under the West Bengal’s HIRA, Puri said, “They (West Bengal government) can register. If you pass a faulty law and if it is not found to be legal, I do not want to go further than that.”
Recently, the Union housing and urban affairs ministry had sought the opinion of the law ministry over West Bengal’s real estate act. “We have done the legal vetting of the proposal which came and based on that we have written a letter,” he said. The West Bengal government’s HIRA needs to get presidential assent for the law owing to the central law on the same subject, the sources claimed. PTI
