Assocham for 'Watchdog' in realty sector

New Delhi, May 2 (UNI) To check the increasing cases of fake advertisements for owning a 'dream house' by real estate developers in leading national dailies, Assocham today urged the government to set up a Watchdog or Monitoring Committee, that would also monitor the actual project costs.

''One of the prime objective of this Watchdog should be to strictly monitor the projects and investment plans of various real estate developers and immediately stop the display of fake advertisements,'' the industry chamber suggested.

The proposed Watchdog or Monitoring Committee should comprise experts of Ministry of Urban Affairs, Development Commissioners, leading real estate developers and builders, retired judges and representatives of industry, it said.

A large number of investors especially NRIs who have knowledge of these real estate projects only through internet and newspapers are cheated as the premises shown in such advertisements turn out to be absolutely false.

This recommendation by Assocham, is part of a paper it would shortly finalise to submit to the government, and emphasises that budding real estate developers have been flooding national dailies with fake advertisements, luring ''aam adami's'' hard earned money for having dwelling units in far flunged areas, pledging them as budgeted houses.

Assocham President Venugopal N Dhoot warned that the adverse impact of this falls on the leading real estate developers who are genuine and are actually building townships in these locations, advising that if not regulated in time with proper mechanism in place, will have adverse impact.

If there is a proper mechanism in place, investors can always approach it for redressal of their grievances and cheaters are booked behind the bars, he said.

One can take note of increasingly misleading and fake ads appearing in various dailies for promising budgeted dwelling units for aam adami with inflated project costs and investment scheduled plans in states like Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana in view of their connectivity to Delhi and regions adjoining to it, it said.

Some of the major cities for which the advertisement are showing up include Hardwar, Hrishikesh, Nainital, Rudrapur, Muktahshwar, Ranikhet, Kausoli, Dehra Dun, Bhiwadi, Jaipur, Mathura, Vrindavan, Shimla, Manali, Sonepat and Panipat.

UNI