BHUBANESWAR: Experts raised serious concerns over the govt’s possible plan to do away with layout plan approval for selling plots, citing it would push unregulated development in urban areas, especially in cities like Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
Sources said that to make the registration of plots and part plots smooth, which has currently hit a roadblock, the govt is planning to bring major amendments to the Odisha Development Authority Act and rephrase Sections 15 and 16, which state that a layout plan from the govt is must for the selling of plots.
“In order to make one thing right, which is paving the way for smooth registration of plots, the govt is likely to make another major mistake. This will lead to unplanned development in cities,” real estate expert Bimalendu Pradhan said.
Pradhan said that the occupancy certificate is another major agenda for apartments, especially the older ones. “Occupancy certificates need to be issued rather than revoked. If it can’t be done for the older apartments, the govt should come up with a regularisation scheme,” he suggests.
The state is currently reeling under a range of issues in the real estate sector, including a bottleneck in the registration of apartments, especially in the advent of the Odisha Apartment Ownership Act of 2023, which makes the certificate of association of allottees mandatory. Besides, issues persist in the registration of plots and part plots. “The govt should make a single window for all these activities since multiple departments and also agencies and individuals are involved in real estate,” city-based realtor Sangram Nayak said.
To ease things a bit, the govt on Saturday issued a notification for apartments, stating that those completed before Feb 25, 2017, remain eligible for registration under the current Odisha Apartment Ownership and Management Act even without having an occupancy certificate.
Real estate experts, however, said even in this case, the govt is promoting the registration of apartments without proper documents. “An apartment that does not have an occupancy certificate is legally not fit to live in, but here the govt is saying without such a certificate, one can go for registration, which is wrong,” urban planner Dipu Nanda said.
Buyers and sellers of older apartments, in the meantime, expressed hope of resuming their transactions with the recent order. “I have a 2BHK flat in Bomikhal and wanted to sell it for the past two years, but couldn’t do it because of the current situation,” Radhanath Mishra, an apartment owner, said.
