On Friday, when stand-in finance minister Piyush Goel was presenting the interim budget in the Parliament for the financial year 2019-20, more than one lakh homebuyers had high hopes that the government would allocate financial aid for incomplete housing projects. But there was no mention of any ‘stress fund’ in the address, leaving buyers in Noida, Greater and Ghaziabad disappointed.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) had urged the Ministry of Finance to create ‘Stress Funds’ to complete stalled housing projects, to bring relief to home buyers in Noida and Greater Noida.
Shweta Bharti, a flat buyer in Amrapali Group, who is also general secretary of Noida Extension Flat Owners Welfare Association (NEFOWA), said, “Two years back when we — a delegation of Amrapali flat buyers — had met with some Union ministers, they had assured that provision of stress fund to be introduced to bring solution to homebuyers’ problem. We were really hoping for it.”
In the aftermath of protests from homebuyers, the UP government had set up a high-level committee comprising three state ministers in September 2017.
Homebuyers alleged that despite several meetings with the ministers with the centre and the state, their grievances went unheard.
Flat buyers said stress fund was the only option out of the mess. “We were not demanding waiver of our home loans or anything! We were demanding financial help, which the government could get back once the projects were completed and sold,” said Abhisek Kumar, president of NOFEWA.
To this, another homebuyer KK Kaushal added, “We did protests, followed it up at the court and were hoping the mention of a stress fund in the budget. But nothing! We will be back on the streets again — and soon!”
