Bhubaneswar: The housing and urban development department has created 28 posts for smooth functioning of the Odisha Real-Estate Regulatory Authority (Orera), which will look after the grievances of homebuyers, resolve them and will also take action if they find any irregularity committed by real-estate developers.

The Orera will be headed by a chairperson who will be a person in the rank of chief secretary, two members, an adjudicating officer, a registrar, a secretary, two joint secretaries and an officer on special duty, apart from several clerks.

Earlier in February, the department issued a first notification appointing the chairperson and the members in the Orera and designated the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal as the Real Estate Appellate Tribunal to look after assisting the authority in resolving the disputes.

Odisha was among the 12 states and Union territories that have enacted the rules on May 1, 2017.

"Several provisions of the Real Estate Regulation Act provide great benefit to the homebuyers. We frequently get to hear about financial fraud committed by various real-estate developers. Once Rera comes into effect, these fraudsters' activities will be checked. The state government should take steps to implement the rules as soon as possible," said Vimal Mehta, a resident of Unit-II.

The authorities are also looking for a suitable site for setting up of a separate office for the service. A site on Vivekananda Marg at Old Town is under consideration for setting up the office. Earlier, it was decided that the office would be set up inside the secretariat.