Maharashtra State Authority to hear complaints against Builders - country first

With complaints against Builders riding in numbers, the Maharashtra State Government has decided to constitute a Housing Regulatory Authority to safeguard the interests of homebuyers. 

The authority will be a quasi-judicial body and resolve disputes related to the housing sector. Four benches are likely to be established to hear the cases at different cities in the state.

With this decision, Maharashtra, with the highest ratio of urbanisation and real estate activities in the country, will become the first state to constitute such an authority,

The Maharashtra Housing (Regulation and Development) 2012 was passed two years ago and Presidential assent came in 2014.

The deadline to frame rules for the authority is October 31 and the process is underway.

An officer attached with the housing department, said, 

"There are over 30,000 disputes pending before various courts and forums regarding alleged malpractices by developers, Most of the complaints from Mumbai and Pune are because of the high density of housing construction activities. After drafting the rules, objections and suggestions will be invited from the people to make more reforms before constituting the body."

"The state has received the official nod from the Centre to set up its own regulatory authority for the state. We are in the process of forming rules and regulations after which the authority will come into existence," he added.

Source: http://www.punemirror.in/pune/civic/Govt-body-to-solve-homebuyers-woes/articleshow/54299390.cms

India's Business set-up Bottlenecks

Building a factory in India is not for the faint hearted. 

Even if a company is fortunate and manages to buy land - which, by the way, is becoming more and more difficult, expensive and time-consuming due to complex laws, people's rising expectations and local politics - that is just a start. 

A manufacturing company in India, on average, has to comply with nearly 70 laws and regulations. Apart from the multiple inspections, it has to file around 100 returns in a year, according to a 2013 report by consultancy firm Deloitte. 

Then there is the double maze of tax and labour laws that can be a big pain even in the best of times. Poor infrastructure does not help either. 

Will the NDA government, whose economic programme hinges on boosting the manufacturing sector, be able to bring about the required change? 

Will it be able to debottleneck the process of setting up and running a factory in the country so that its plan to create millions of new jobs in manufacturing sees the light of day? 

Problems in acquisition of land, delays in environmental and other clearances and infrastructure bottlenecks have taken a toll. 

In the past five years (2011 to 2015), new projects have seen a marked reduction of 44 per cent from the period between 2006 and 2010. The value of stalled projects more than tripled during the period. 

Worse, straddled with huge distressed assets, core sector companies are more concerned about avoiding default rather than making fresh investments. 

As a result, India's investment-to-gross domestic product ratio has fallen for five straight financial years now. 

The NDA government has tried to correct this through a massive increase in investments to build infrastructure. It is likely to follow this policy in the coming Budget, too.

Source -http://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/features/indias-manufacturing-hub-plan-is-in-a-host-of-problems/story/229415.html 

Road Under Construction Causes Accident - Engineers Booked - TOI Bangalore

For probably the first time, ever, two BDA engineers and a project-in-charge manager were on Friday arrested by the Bangalore traffic police in connection with a ghastly road accident. The accident on September 3, due to an unpainted divider, killed two persons and injured one near Outer Ring Road in Devarabeesanahalli, exactly opposite Accenture and Ecospace tech park.

The arrests are said to be the direct outcome of a meeting chaired by Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) B Dayananada a few days ago instructing all traffic police officials pin the blame on and arrest BDA and BBMP engineers in-charge of badly-maintained roads in case of fatal accidents.

(Above) Mangled remains of the vehicle which rammed into the median, killing two and injuring one. (Below) The clumsily-placed hazard board at the median in front of theDevarabeesanahalli flyover following the accident. 

Confirming the arrests, deputy commissioner of police (Traffic East) Babu Rajendra Prasad told Bangalore Mirror, "We have arrested AEE K Sripad Raju and AE Pradeep from the BDA, along with project manager Vittobha from Simplex Infrastructure Private, to which the work of maintaining the roads and completing the project had been outsourced.''

The trio has been booked under sections 279 (negligent act on a public way), 304 (A) (causing death by negligence), and 337 (causing hurt by an act endangering life or personal safety of others). Dayananda told Bangalore Mirror: "I have instructed the traffic police to book cases against the concerned civic officials wherever their fault is found. In this particular case, the engineers and project manager were arrested for failing to paint the central median with reflective paint and install sign boards cautioning drivers on the road about the barrier."

Sources said that after the accident, a small reflector board held up by stones has been placed at the site. However, even this is said to be not very visible. Sripad Raju told Mirror, "Road safety is a different job and it has to be implemented by B-Trac. Painting and putting up sign boards is work that is supposed to be taken up by the traffic police. The accident occurred because of rash driving and not because of incomplete work. Putting the blame on us and holding us responsible is not done in this case." However, Prasad said: "If the work is incomplete, why do they deem the road safe enough for motorists to ply? They should close off all roads until the roads are completely ready for travel. We also held a meeting with BBMP and NHAI officials the day before yesterday where we apprised them about all problem junctions in the city that needed to be addressed in terms of lighting and road repairs."

Source - http://www.bangaloremirror.com/bangalore/cover-story/A-first-for-city-2-Engineers-held-for-road-mishap/articleshow/42380011.cms