Coming as serious blow to Odisha real estate buyers, Odisha Real Estate Regulatory Authority (ORERA) has becoming completely defunct, following the retirement of its third member — who was serving as the acting chairperson.
ORERA functions primarily with three senior members. Its chairperson, Siddhanta Das, resigned in February just before completing his five-year term. On May 2, member (administration) Pradeep Biswal also retired.
After Das's exit, the housing and urban development department had appointed Gopal Chandra Patnaik, member (judicial), as the acting chairperson. He also retired this month.
With all three senior members having stepped down, ORERA has become non-functional. This has resulted in a prolonged stalling of the authority's work, including hearing homebuyer grievances, and registering projects, plots and more.
The department, which had initiated the process of appointing the three new members before the current situation arose, is yet to finalize names.
The sector players say that the govt should have taken proactive steps to appoint the members and ensure ORERA's continued functioning. As per real estate activist Bimalendu Pradhan ORERA had made some landmark judgements recently, which brought much-needed regulation in the real estate sector in Odisha, particularly in Bhubaneswar. It needs to keep going in the interest of the homebuyers.
