Congress wants govt to form a housing sector regulator

MUMBAI: The Congress wants the Maharashtra government to create a regulatory mechanism to deal exclusively with the housing sector. The suggestion has come from the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) in response to the state government’s recently announced housing policy.

The government had asked for opinions as well as objections with regard to its policy unveiled in November last, which will be made into a law during the upcoming budget session. Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, being a senior Congressman, had urged the MPCC chief Prabha Rau to constitute a cell to discuss the housing policy and create awareness about it.

The MPCC housing cell that came into being after the CM’s suggestion is of the view that the proposed regulatory mechanism would protect the interests of the common man. “Every other major section in the infrastructure sector is already having a regulatory body or getting one in place. The absence of such machinery for the housing sector is affecting the interests of the common investor,” Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, former Shiv Sena MLC and now a Congressman, heading the cell told ET.

The Congress deems creation of such a body essential as there are many cases where, it says, a small house buyer is taken for granted by builders. “It takes years before his or her complaint is heard in the existing system. The Maharashtra government without waiting for the Centre to act should initiate a process to have its own state-level regulatory authority,” Mr Gidwani said. As regards composition, the party wants that such a regulator should not be a body full of retired bureaucrats or judges having no executive powers. Rather, it should be run by serving bureaucrats and technocrats, along with urban planners.

The MPCC, on its part, may now go in for an expert committee to discuss the state’s housing policy in greater detail. “We just want to ensure the proposed policy takes into account every aspect of the sector. It should not be imbalanced or favouring a particular lobby,” Mr Gidwani said, hinting at a powerful builders’ lobby. The party wing is keen that the government consider its suggestions since they are “in the interest of the people”.