The Telangana government has appointed a full-time chairperson for the Telangana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) on Monday, nearly six years after it came into being.
Commissioner and director of municipal administration N Satyanarayana, a 2009-batch IAS officer, has been appointed the first chairperson of RERA for a period of five years. As of now, chief secretary A Santhi Kumari has been functioning as in charge chairperson of the authority.
Apart from the chairperson, the state government has appointed retired additional commissioner of commercial taxes department Jannu Laxmi Narayana and retired director of town planning wing, K Srinivas Rao, as members of RERA.
The government had invited application for the posts of RERA chairperson and two members in January last. Nearly 80 officers, including former chief secretaries, secretary officers, such as ex chief secretaries Somesh Kumar and SK Joshi and retired IAS officer T Chiranjeevulu, applied for the post.
Sources said that chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao initially thought of appointing Somesh Kumar as RERA chief as he was acting chief of RERA for nearly three years. However, Somesh Kumar was later made chief adviser to the CM. Since SK Joshi is advisor to the government on irrigation issues, his name was not considered for RERA, sources revealed.
With a good track record and experience in urban and revenue issues, municipal administration minister KT Rama Rao and KCR preferred Satyanarayana over the other officers. Satyanarayana, who worked in GHMC, as commissioner of various civic bodies and also as collector of Kamareddy district, is due to retire by month-end.
Official sources said the government gave a notification to fill the RERA posts following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on RERA appointments filed by the Forum for Good Governance (FGC) in Telangana high court last year.