Local bodies told to displaying realty documents on their websites

Mumbai: In the aftermath of the RERA scam in Kalyan where 67 projects were found to be using fake commencement certificates and following a request by Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA), the urban development department has now made it mandatory for all local bodies and planning authorities to upload copies of commencement and occupancy certificates (CCs and OCs) issued by them on their respective websites and webpages for the benefit of the public.

A government resolution (GR) issued on Thursday said if the municipal corporations, nagar parishads, nagar panchayats do not have a website of their own, they should develop such websites by March 31.

Since promoters used fake commencement certificates to register their projects with the MahaRERA in the Kalyan scam, the GR directed the local bodies to email the CCs and OCs they are issuing directly to the MahaRERA, and integrate their websites with the MahaRERA portal by March 31.

The GR also put the onus of coordination and information sharing with the MahaRERA on the town planning head of the local body.

The RERA scam in Kalyan came to light in mid-2022 after a whistleblower Sandeep Patil filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay high court and pointed how 67 projects in the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) had exploited the lack to coordination and communication between various local bodies and the MahaRERA to register projects with fake OCs.

The KDMC assistant director of town planning in August and October 2022 wrote letters pointing out that the commencement certificates of the 67 projects were not issued by them, and obtained by fake means. A criminal case was registered against these projects and the Thane crime branch was asked to investigate the matter.

Following this, in November, accusing these projects of indulging in unfair practices, the MahaRERA had deregistered these projects and directed the concerned banks to freeze bank accounts belonging to the projects.

The MahaRERA had also urged the urban development secretary to immediately put in place a system where all milestone approvals relevant to buyers of real estate projects such as CCs and OCs should be uploaded on a dedicated portal by the respective planning authority so that their veracity can be verified by the buyers as well as the authority.