Coal news and updates

Former CMDs of CIL subsidiaries re-join as OSDs

November 25: The former Chairman-cum-Managing Directors of Coal India Ltd's (CIL) subsidiaries South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL) and Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL) have recently joined the parent company as officers on special duty (OSD), a company source told ICMW.

While SECL's ex-CMD M P Dixit was suspended by CIL after he was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in May 2010 for alleged irregularities in awarding contracts for procurement of equipment, the CMD of NCL, V K Singh, in 2011 was allegedly involved in a similar activity.

The official said, both Dixit and Singh were allowed to join the parent company recently after the CBI neither framed charges against them nor gave them any clearance certificate.

"As there was no clear-cut response from the CBI, the board of directors of CIL had decided to send both the officials to their previously held positions before the presidential directive came to appoint them as CMD," the official added.

Following the board's clearance, Dixit has joined at the company's headquarters in Kolkata on November 18 whereas Singh has re-joined the Delhi office.

"In fact, it is a kind of demotion for both the officials to join as OSD after serving as CMD of a subsidiary company and this happened only because they were neither charged by the CBI nor acquitted," a source in the company said.

It has been found in recent years that senior officials in PSU companies shy away from taking bold decisions because of the fact that they can easily be framed either by vigilance or CBI or any other investigation agency, industry sources said.