Draft norms for Delhi realtors

To combat the menace of fraudulent real estate brokers, the Delhi Real Estate Development Council (REDCO) has drawn up draft guidelines for the registration and functioning of brokers.

The council, inaugurated last week by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, will be focusing primarily on licensing brokers. A draft will be circulated among the ministries concerned.

The body will make it mandatory for the brokers to go through a 36-hour training programme and should be at least 18 years old with the higher secondary degree. Also, they would have to get themselves registered with a recognised body, a council official said.

The council would be working towards a registration cell and branding norms. "There is an urgent need for setting up registration bodies for developers, both at the national and state levels; so we will work out guidelines for incorporating a proper registration council," said T C Goyal, council president and DLF Universal managing director.

The organisation would be also working for the rehabilitation of slum-dwellers, and to facilitate this the Delhi government said it was open to the idea of an in-site rehabilitation of slum-dwellers in the capital, on the lines of the Mumbai slum re-settlement model. It called for private participation to adapt the model to Delhi's needs.

The Mumbai model entails constructing small apartments for jhuggi dwellers in one part of the area, while the remaining part is developed commercially to cross-subsidise further development.

On the issue of jhuggis and unauthorised colonies mushrooming in the capital, Dikshit said one of the main reasons for it was that residential colonies came up in a thoughtless manner.

Goyal proposed that the government allot land of 5""50 acres to the private sector for housing. It would act as a disincentive to unauthorised construction, he said.

Delhi Development Authority (DDA) Vice-Chairman Madhukar Gupta said a DDA team visited Mumbai to study the slum development programme, adding that a few sites have "tentatively" been identified to carry out similar projects.