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Bengal

Scorned KWIC buyers hope action will be initiated against Prasoon Mukherjee under new act

The buyers of Kolkata West International City (KWIC) developed by Prasoon Mukherjee, whose sufferings became instrumental in giving birth to the fight for real estate regulatory authority (RERA) which paved the way for clearing the Real Estate ( Regulation and Development ) Bill, 2016 passed in Parliament are hopeful that the builder will be pulled up under the Act soon.

The Bill which has been sent to the President for his assent is likely to become an Act within one year after notification of all its sections. The Bill states “The Act shall be applicable for all the ongoing projects where CC (by whatever name it may be called) has not been issued on the date of notification for the project.”

Even if the notification is published a year later, Mukherjee will have to complete construction of 400 odd row houses. To do this round the clock work is necessary but a visit to the housing complex revealed that work is going on at a very slow pace. Mukherjee has so far collected Rs 400 crore from the buyers and they have to pay interest at 18 per cent if the installments are not paid on time. Mukherjee got 390 acres of land to set up the housing complex.

If Mukherjee fails to complete construction of 900 row houses and take CC for all of them before the Act comes into force he will have to pay interest at the rate of 18 per cent to the buyers along with compensation. It may be recalled that the project started in 2006 and in 10 years only nearly 500 row houses have been completed. Mukherjee has taken CC for these structures but the new Act proposed that CC for the entire Phase I will have to be taken at a time.

Abhay Upadhay, national convener for fight for RERA said the pathetic experience gathered from KWIC had helped us to cooperate and set up an all India body.

The body held meeting in Delhi and virtually forced the Centre to pass the Bill in both Houses of Parliament on March 10 and March 15 respectively.

Earlier, Rajya Sabha had sent the Bill to the select committee. The select committee members came to Kolkata and talked to all the state holders- builders, banks, buyers and civic bodies. They also then went to Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Shimla.
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