States object to Centre plan for realty regulator

The Centre's attempts to regulate the realty sector to curb black money seems to be running into rough weather with several states opposing the proposal.

Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have objected to the proposed watchdog, saying they plan to bring in their own legislations. Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have not responded to the Centre's draft legislation.

"We have assured states that they can draft their own version of the Bill as long as it is not inferior to the central Bill," an official said. "We also clarified that the central law would not get into matters related to land or housing which are in the State List." The proposed Bill restricts itself to regulating transactions between promoters or builders and buyers.

Passage of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2011 has been delayed by over a year. The Bill seeks to bring in transparency and accountability in the housing sector, and penalise errant builders. The draft Bill allows a state to have more than one regulator, or two or more states to have one regulator.

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