PESB selects Rao as CIL chief

After well over an year,state-run Coal India Limited is finally set to get a full-time Chairman,with the Public Enterprises Selection Board selecting Singareni Collieries Company Ltd chief Narsingh Rao to take charge at the helm of the worlds largest coal miner

After well over an year,state-run Coal India Limited (CIL) is finally set to get a full-time Chairman,with the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) selecting Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) chief Narsingh Rao on Wednesday to take charge at the helm of the worlds largest coal miner.

Raos candidature now needs to be cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet following the vigilance clearance.

The state-run miner is without a full-time chairman since the retirement of Partha S Bhatacharyya in February 2011. The companys Director (Technical) N C Jha who has been handling addition responsibility of CMD since March 2011 too retired on January 31 this year and the additional secretary in the ministry Zohra Chatterjee has taken temporary charge.

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Rao an IAS officer of the1986 batch from the Andhra Pradesh cadre,is learnt to have pipped over 20 aspirants to qualify for the post.

Earlier the PESB had selected Tapas Kumar Lahiry,CMD of Bharat Coking Coal as the first candidate followed by D C Garg,CMD of Western Coalfields.

Although the selection process was completed by early December 2010,but the panel was subsequently cancelled due to vigilance-related issues and the panel was scrapped in November 2011.

The appointment comes at a time when the company is under intense pressure from all quarters to augment production and meet the growing needs of power,steel and cement sectors.