Rs 700 crore dues pending, Punjab stops registries to cut realtors to size

Tribune News Service

Rajmeet Singh

Chandigarh, November 17

With several private builders defaulting on the payment of government dues to the tune of over Rs 700 crore, the Punjab Department of Housing and Urban Development has written to the Revenue Department to stop registration of properties in respective townships.

Maximum in Mohali

• Maximum defaulters in projects approved by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority
• The payments pending on account of charges for external development, change of land use and licence fee
• At least 40 defaulting companies are under scrutiny

The maximum defaulters are said to be in projects approved by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA). The payments are on account of charges for external development, change of land use and licence fee, said an official. He said the action was being taken on a case-to-case basis as cheques deposited by certain builders to clear pending dues had been dishonoured.

In several cases, the housing department has also withdrawn the facility of rescheduling of dues and instalments that was available to realtors. At least 40 such cases are under scrutiny. Rajiv Kumar Gupta, GMADA Chief Administrator, said they had written to the sub-registrar for stopping the registries in defaulting projects. “Proceedings under the Negotiable Instrument Act have been initiated against the builders whose post-dated cheques have been dishonoured,” he said.

Among main defaulters, Altus Space Builders owes Rs 42.76 crore and the company had been served final notice before the process to stop registries was initiated, said sources. Similarly, the registries of a township owned by RKM Housing Pvt Ltd had been stopped (Rs 35 crore pending), they said, adding other projects included Vera Developers (Rs 23.11 crore; final notice served) and Bajwa Developers Ltd (Rs 19.64 crore; project licence being cancelled). Another housing department official said there were three other promoters who owed over Rs 140 crore, but action couldn’t be initiated in their cases as they had moved the High Court. In case of mega projects, at least 10 promoters owed the government over Rs 160 crore, he said. In projects like Sukham Infrastructure (Rs 48 crore dues), the department had written to revenue officials to stop registries of the township, the official said. “The registries of plots in case of promoter HP Singh and Others (Rs 38.41 crore) have also been stopped. The total defaulting amount under mega projects, including those under litigation, is over Rs 400 crore,” he said.

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