Antony Desa may become first head of Madhya Pradesh real estate authority

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh chief secretary Antony Desa, who is all set to get an extension for three months, is tipped to be the first head of the proposed Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) , which is to be established after clearance of the Real Estate Regulator Bill in Parliament.
Desa, a 1980 batch IAS officer, will be completing his three-year term this month-end but will remain in office till February, Mantaralaya sources told TOI.
The newly-created authority will regulate real estate transactions and bring in transparency between buyers and developers. The states have been asked by the Centre to set up the authority in one year, before the end of May 2017.
Desa, who has been in the good books of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan throughout his tenure, was expecting an extension of six months and the government had also sent a proposal for the same to the Centre.
However, the department of personnel and administrative reforms did not give its clearance to it.
Normally, a chief secretary can get an extension of three months by the state government. For anything more than three months, the state needs to get a clearance from the Centre , which, in this case, was not granted.
Desa’s extension will stymie, for a little while, the heavy duty jockeying going on in the corridors of secretariat for the chief secretary post. Earlier, his name was also proposed for the Administrative Reforms Committee which was likely to be set up by the end of 2016. However, that plan has been postponed.
There are more than 10 senior IAS officers of the 1982 and 1984 batches who are eyeing the post. However, Desa's extension might help ACS Iqbal Singh Bains, who has recently been elevated.