Haryana RERA’ Gurugram and Panchkula benches to be functional

The state government has appointed two members each for the two H-Rera benches in Gurugram and Panchkula, moving a step closer to making the regulatory authority functional. Earlier, the government had named additional chief secretary (education) KK Khandelwal as the head of the Gurugram bench and additional chief secretary (health) Rajan Gutpa as the chief of the Panchkula bench last November. Officials claimed that the two chairpersons and the just appointed members were likely to assume charges in the first week of February. Samir Kumar, a retired IAS officer, and Subhash Chander Kush, a former chief town planner, have been picked for the Gurugram bench. On the other hand, Anil Kumar Panwar, a retired district and sessions judge, and Dilbag Singh Sihag, also a former chief town planner, will serve on the Panchkula bench. Sihag, the man who is credited with the drafting of the H-Rera rules, has been acting as the H-Rera executive director so far. “The appointments will be effective from the dates they assume charges. Their tenure will be of five years or till they attain the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier,” read the notification issued by the department of town and country planning on Monday. The Gurugram bench, according to officials, would start functioning out of a newly constructed guest house of the public works department (PWD) located on the Old Railway Road near the district court from February 5. And, the bench will get its permanent office in Sector 44 in the next six months or so. “Gurugram, which houses around 65% of the state’s realty projects and reports an increasing number of builder-buyer disputes, needs the Rera office at the earliest. So, it is essential that we start the Gurugram bench as soon as possible,” a senior H-Rera official told TOI on Wednesday. An accounts wing, an administrative wing and a legal wing apart, the Gurugram office will have a complaint and registry wing. A total of 52 officials will work there initially but the number will be increased in coming days. The work force will include officials on deputation, retired government servants as well as those hired on a temporary basis. Officials said complaints filed under Rera would be ideally resolved within 60 days. An RTI plea has revealed that nearly 382 projects, most of which are in Gurugram, have been registered under the Rera in Haryana since last July while buyers filed complaints against 67 developers during the same period. In response to the query filed by Gurugram-based activist Aseem Takyar, the authorities have also claimed that 21 developers had been show-caused between May and June (2017) for publishing advertisements on newspapers without registering their projects under the Rera.