Mohammed Badrul Ahsan :
More than 65 percent of REHAB member companies have long been running their business in the city without taking registration from Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) showing thumb to the law enforcement agencies, sources said.
The sources also said that reluctance of Rajuk to check and enforce the companies to abide by the government rules is main reason behind the situation.
According to data of Real Estate & Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB), as of june 2016, the total memebrs of the association stood at 1,139.
Of them only 360 of them have got registration so far, according to Rajuk, showing that even the REHAB members were not complying with the regulations.
Besides, according to an estimate, another 1200 companies are also in operations in the capital without taking registration neither from REHAB nor from the Rajuk .
The government had approved a draft Real Estate Management Ordinance in 2008 for taking action against the unregistered real estate companies.
Later for a specific land use plan in Dhaka, the government formulated Detailed Area Plan (DAP) and finally passed the Real Estate Management Law in 2009 and Real Estate Development and Management Act in 2010. Later, the Real Estate Development and Management Regulations were formulated in 2011.
According to section 5 (1) of the Real Estate Development and Management Act of 2010, the real estate companies need to get the approval from the government before their commencement.
The government assigned Rajuk to deal with the approval, according to the Rajuk officials and REHAB office bearers.
Rajuk has issued notices at different times this year to the unregistered companies to complete their registration according to Real Estate Development and Management Act 2010 and Real Estate Development and Management Regulations 2011.
“But we did not receive satisfactory level of response from them (unapproved realtors),” Rajuk member (development control) Md. Asmaul Hossain told The New Nation.
“Of course, the possibility of frauds is quite high in the projects built by the unauthorised builders as there is no accountability. That’s why we’re trying to motivate the people,” he said.
Seeking anonymity, another Rajuk official said the realtors, in fact, are too powerful to follow the instructions of the development authority. “You’ll not get too many examples of punishment by Rajuk for breaching the laws.”
He said the acts provide for punishment-financial penalty or even two years imprisonment-to unauthorised developers for wrongdoings and hurting the interests of apartment buyers and landowners.
When contacted, REHAB President Alamgir Shamsul Alamin (Kajal) said they have recently taken a decision in principle of sending letters to their members to secure approval from Rajuk within three months.
“If they fail, their membership will be cancelled,”
Some realtors, however, complained that a large number of such firms are not trying to get registration only to avoid the harassment by the Rajuk’s corrupt officials and employees.
Talking to The New Nation, a managing director of an unapproved real estate company said the approval procedure could cause extra burden in the form of unnecessary harassment by Rajuk officials and killing of time, etc.
“To avoid harassment and obtain registration easily, we engage with agents to facilitate transaction of a lot of money,” he said.
He added that they submitted design of projects to Rajuk and secured its green signal before implementation. “We are not illegal. If Rajuk wants to enforce the legal provision, they can easily do this by cancelling the projects.”
However, economists express their grave concern over the situation saying that government’s apathy to enforce the realtors to abide by the rules may rise of apartment-related frauds and may create another Destiny like situation again.
“The government should immediately take action to make the housing companies bound to take approval from Rajuk to keep them under surveillance and to ensure transparency in the sector,” Dr. A B Mirza Azizul Islam, Former Adviser Caretaker Government said.
