Roaring Khandelwal

When there is a will, there is a way. This is easier said than done. When Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced Haryana Real Estate Regulation Authority (HARERA) to regulate the despotic builder mafia in the state, he did not know whom to appoint as the Chairman of HARERA Gurugram. Khattar was looking for a civil servant who could deliver and emancipate the grief-stricken customers from the builder mafia. He finally chose Dr KK Khandelwal, a 1985-batch IAS officer, Additional Chief Secretary, Sports and Youth Affairs, Government of Haryana, irrespective of all opposition. HARERA did not have an office, staff and other members when Khandelwal’s name was announced as Chairman HARERA. Khandelwal did not lose any time. He landed in a beautiful PWD guest house and converted it as HARERA Gurugram headquarters. He got two other members appointed by pursuing higher ups in Chandigarh. Now he had a full-fledged HARERA in place. He converted a big hall of the PWD guest house as a court and guest rooms as the offices. Deliver the house to customers by all means is the motto of Khandelwal. In a year’s time, HARERA got 800 cases from Gurugram. Khandelwal holds court three days a week and it’s an experience to see how he delivers the judgement. The builders of Gurugram thought Khandelwal would be a cakewalk for them as Khandewal had served as Principal Secretary to former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and most of the builders are defaulters from Hooda regime. But, Khandelwal has belied all misconceptions about himself. Not only he is imposing fines running to crores on defaulters and violators but is seeing to it that the builders’ lobby does not try to cut corners to befool the needy customers.