In a major violation of MahaRera norms by a state agency, Navi Mumbai town planning authority Cidco has advertised its recently launched housing projects without registering them with Rera.
 
City-based consumer body Mumbai Grakah Panchayat (MGP) has filed a complaint with the MahaRera seeking to penalise Cidco for advertising 11 housing projects without registering with the regulator and not mentioning the registration numbers of the ones registered on the advertisements.
 
In a letter to MahaRera chief Gautam Chatterjee, MGP has alleged that out of the 11 housing projects advertised in newspapers and marketed on its website, only two located in Ghansoli are registered.
 
"In spite of there being no MahaRera registration for these nine projects, they are also being prominently advertised, marketed, with photos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, which is in gross violation of section 3(1) of Rera," MGP said in the letter.
 
When contacted, a Cidco spokesperson told PTI, "Yes, we had not mentioned the registration numbers in the advertisements. But we have already got registration numbers for four projects in total, including those in Ghansoli and Dronagiri. We have applied for registration for the remaining projects and will get them soon."
 
On August 11, Cidco had announced 14,838 affordable homes under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, registration for which commenced today.
 
Of the 14,838 houses, 5,262 apartments are being built for the economically weaker section and the remaining 9,576 for the lower income group category.
 
The housing projects will come up in 11 locations in the five nodes of Taloja, Kalamboli, Kharghar, Ghansoli and Dronagiri in Navi Mumbai.
 
Meanwhile, seeking imposition of penalty on Cidco, MGP chairman Shirish Despande said, "We expect the government development authorities like these (Cidco) to be more diligent and careful in discharge of their obligations/duties under Rera. If private promoters and real estate agents could be penalised by MahaRera for similar violation, the same law must also apply to Cidco in this case."
 
MGP has sought imposition of penalty up to 10 per cent of the projects cost as provided under Section 59 (a) of Rera for advertising nine unregistered projects in violation of Section 3 (a) and up to five per cent of the project cost of all 11 projects under Section 61 for not publishing MahaRera registration numbers and not giving MahaRera website address in the said advertisement.
 
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The consumer body also requested MahaRera that the penalty to be paid by Cido should be recovered from its top officials responsible for such serious lapses.
Meanwhile, in a separate release, Cidco today said by another list of 25,000 homes would be released by the end of this year.