NEW DELHI: The BJP will represent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, now the need for setting up the Real Estate Regulatory Authority, in order to prevent fly-by-night builders from cheating innocent people, who put in their lifetime earnings into their dream house project.

The Real Estate Regulatory Authority should be on lines of TRAI, SEBI and IRDA. Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi will lead the delegation of BJP investors cell that has collected 10 lakh signatures on the memorandum to be submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, on issues affecting small investors.

The BJP wants its demands to be reflected in the Union Budget to be presented on February 29. Murli Manohar Joshi said, “We appeal to the Government to protect the small investor, who is the backbone of the Indian economy.” Joshi said that the money of the small investors is not secure and they are not immune to the ups and downs of the market.

Among the other demands of the BJP restoring 80 (L) in the Income-Tax Act, in order to make savings more attractive to the people. Joshi said farmers, students, housewives and senior citizens, who are not income-tax assessees, should be exempted from the requirement of producing PAN Card for starting the Demat account.

National Security Adviser M K Narayanan had said at the 43rd Conference on Security Policy at Munich, “Isolated instances of terrorist outfits manipulating the stock markets to raise funds for their operations have been reported.

Besides, he wanted housing projects to spread to small towns and cities, in order to reduce pressure on land in metros. With metros spreading, there is mounting pressure on the agricultural land, which could hot food security. The bank loans for housing, also was on the higher side, which is hidden even by the banks.