By Ram Kumar Kaushik
It's been over a month since the deadline of application, there is no word so far from Rajasthan on appointment of chairman of Real Estate Regulatory Authority ( RERA ) Rajasthan. The post has been vacant since April 2023.
On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh has appointed retired IAS officer Sanjay R Bhoosreddy as the chairman, and has also appointed Dimple Verma as a new member of the Authority. The posts fell vacant on June 30, 2023.
A retired IAS officer of the 1989 batch, Bhoosreddy had served as the Investment Commissioner of the UP government and was also in the Uttar Pradesh Housing Board. He outrun 30 candidates to replace Rajive Kumar , former chief secretary, who was the first chairman of RERA.
Also Read : IAS Veenu Gupta becomes chief of RERA three months before retirement
Verma was also an IAS officer of 1989 batch, and retired as Director
General, Youth Welfare. She has also served as the Principal Secretary to the UP government. She is the wife of Special DGP Prashant Kumar (IPS: 1990: UP) who is considered close to the chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
In Rajasthan, only 4 candidates have applied for the post of chairman. Veenu Gupta, a 1987 batch IAS officer, currently serving as additional chief secretary industries and commerce, has applied for this post. She is due to retire in December 2023.
Apart from Gupta, two retired IAS officers – Ravi Shankar Srivastava and P K Goyal – have also applied for this coveted post.
Ravi Shankar Srivastava, a 1985 batch officer is the senior most among the three and got retired on September 30, 2022, while P K Goyal three batches junior to him retired in January this year.
One retired chief engineer of Rajasthan Housing Board S L Gurnani has also applied for this post. It is unlikely that he gets selected pipping three bureaucrats in contention.
At present, RERA Rajasthan has two members – Shailendra Agarwal and S S Sohota. Both are retired bureaucrats with Agarwal holding the charge of chairman for the time being.
Race is between Veenu Gupta and P K Goyal
Veenu Gupta was the frontrunner for the post of chief secretary falling vacant on June 30, 2023 after retirement of Usha Sharma. But in a dramatic turn of events, Usha Sharma got extension of 6 months in last minute to dash Gupta's possibilities of being chief secretary.
Since the extension spoilt the party for Veenu Gupta, the state government may consider her for this prized post. She has been a great administrator throughout her 35 years of career. She is positioned perfect to be the successor of N C Goel, who served the chairman of RERA from March 2019-2023 April. During his tenure more than 2500 projects got registered.
The next in the race is P K Goyal who retired as the Additional Chief Secretary of Education department. He is among rare bureaucrats along with currently serving Subodh Agarwal, who volunteered to work under then chief secretary Niranjan Arya, who was a batch junior to him in the secretariat. During Goyal's tenure, the controversial episode of REET paper leak happened.
The third bureaucrat Ravi Shankar Srivastava is not considered serious player as he doesn't enjoy a good rapport with the current dispensation. He career has also been marred with controversy as he remained suspended for 6 years since 2004 after the state's anti-corruption bureau registered a case of corruption against him.
Srivastava was indicted by the ACB while working as a member of the Board of Revenue and the Rajasthan government put him under suspension as per the All India Service (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969. He is also facing prosecution for a case of disproportionate assets.
In 2010, when he was finally brought back in the service, he continued his legal battle for promotion and right and finally in April 2018, he was able to sit on the top chair of ACS.
Post of RERA chief
The position of Chairman of RERA is a selection post and interested candidates are invited to apply. A high power committee, led by the Chief Justice of the High Court, with members including the Principal Secretary UDH and Secretary Law, will then select the most suitable candidate for the position. To be eligible for the post, the candidate must be an official of the seniority of Additional Secretary in the Government of India or a technocrat, and the tenure of the Chairman is five years or until the age of 65
Ram Kumar Kaushik is a seasoned journalist with over 25 years of experience across mediums. The architect of this news website, he is also a consultant with several media groups. He was formerly the group managing editor of ITV Network (NewsX, India News and The Sunday Guardian) and its digital products.
