An Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer R. P. S. Kahlon, the serving Environment Secretary to the West Bengal Government, has joined the race for the post of the chairman-cum-managing director of Coal India Ltd (CIL), the world's single largest coal mining company.A 1984-batch IAS officer from the West Bengal cadre, he holds a post-graduate degree in English. At least three other IAS officers are also believed to have applied to the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) which conducts the interviews for the post which has been lying vacant without any steady incumbent, since the retirement of P. S. Bhattacharyya in February 2011.
However, sources in the West Bengal Government described the bid by Mr. Kahlon, as an unprecedented move, and one which enjoyed the tacit support of the State government to gain control over the city-based Maharatna PSU over whose policies, it had vented its ire on a number of occasions. At times over its holding back supplies to the state power utilities for non-payment of dues and at times over hike in prices.
Besides the four IAS officers, at least four chairmen and directors of top public sector units, including NMDC and Singareni Collieries Company Ltd, and the CMDs of nearly all the coal-producing subsidiaries of CIL, barring South Eastern Coalfields Ltd, are in the race.
Nirmal Chandra Jha, the present acting CMD, retires on January 31, after which additional secretary Zohra Chatterjee will hold charge till a new incumbent is selected. The interviews are slated for mid-February. It may be mentioned that in 2011, the two candidates at the top of the list could not take the hot seat at the CIL chairman's office as they got mired in regulatory approvals.
