The Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority has slapped show-cause notices to 12 builders for diverting around Rs 3,000-4,000 crore of home buyers’ money that was meant for completion of housing projects, a senior state government official said. The notice comes following a report submitted by forensic auditor Currie and Brown that had investigated 96 developers in Noida and Greater Noida for financial misappropriation. According to the report, about 25 projects has “serious issues” and are difficult to resolve, while 25 projects have been declared fine. The remaining have been graded as redeemable and can be revived by roping in a co-developer or providing seed funding.

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“We have given the developers 15 days time to give their reply. We have asked them to give full financial disclosure. After they send their responses, we will categorise these builders on the basis of their merit to complete the pending projects,” the official said.

The official said the UP RERA is also mulling to de-register the builders and forfeit their land. The authority may even ask residents welfare association to come forward and take charge of completion of projects which are already under construction. It may even ask builders to take third party contractors on board to complete their pending projects.

As per rough estimates, there are 2.5 lakh affected housing units in Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Express areas.
Earlier this year, a high-level committee, chaired by Durga Shankar Mishra, the secretary in the ministry of housing and urban affairs, was formed by the state government to address the issues of affected home buyers of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway. It had also proposed a similar arrangement to complete a project besides giving some relaxation to developers to bring in new players to complete stalled projects.

The Uttar Pradesh RERA has received about 8,100 complaints, of which 2,200 have been disposed off. Officials at the state authority expect that by January 2019, all pending complaints would be addressed. The number of projects registered is just around 2,514.