New Delhi: A combative Rahul Gandhi on Saturday kept up his attack on Narendra Modi government, accusing it of working against middle class home-buyers by “diluting” a bill on regulating real estate sector and making it “pro-builders”.
The Congress Vice-President, who has aggressively targeted the government and the Indian Prime Minister over the land bill and farmers’ issues since his return from a nearly two-month leave, Saturday sought to reach out to middle class, saying he would fight for them the way he has stood by farmers and tribals.
“Government, which has been working against farmers and tribals, is working against the middle class in the same manner,” he told reporters after meeting several NCR flat buyers here.
With Rahul upping the ante on the amended Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, the fate of the bill listed for consideration and passage in Rajya Sabha on May 5 has become uncertain as the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) does not have the numbers in the Upper House to ensure its passage.
“I have assured them that the way I am helping the poor and the tribals, I will do the same for the middle class. I will stand by them,” the Congress leader said, as he sought to link the “suffering” of the middle class home-buyers with the issue of land, which the Congress has made a major political plank.
Rahul said that he had learnt that it is not just farmers and tribals but also the middle class people that are suppressed on matters related to land.
Assuring home-buyers that he would stand by them, Gandhi said that it was due to lack of transparency, the buyers were left in a quandary.
“They are told that you will get the flat on a particular day but for years they don’t get the flat. They are told the super duper area of the flat would be so much but what is delivered is different,” he said.
He said the government was trying to destroy the Bill which Congress led UPA (United Progressive Alliance) had brought to regulate the real estate sector.
“Main dilution is that earlier there was transparency. The carpet area that you sign is what would be given. They have diluted that now and from pro-buyer made it pro-builder,” he said, firing yet another salvo at Modi government whom he has accused of being “pro-corporate, anti-farmer and anti-poor” over the land bill.
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls also, the Congress Vice-President had made a strong pro-middle class pitch promising to “create a floor” beneath the feet of 70 crore population of the country and lift them to middle class status.
The Congress party has decided to take the issue of changes brought about by the NDA government in the real estate bill to people and bring out the “contrast” between UPA’s real estate bill and NDA’s legislation on the line of what it did in the case of the land acquisition Act.
Gandhi claimed the government had diluted provisions of Real Estate Regulatory Authority Bill making the legislation pro-builders from being pro-buyers.
After meeting several National Capital Region (NCR) flat buyers on Saturday, the Congress Vice-President said that someone was promised that the flat will have a good view, but a few months after the flat was delivered, another building came up and the view was blocked.
