By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 31 Aug: Rajesh Kumar Srivastava, the most senior Director in the ONGC Board after the superannuation of CMD Alka Mittal, has been appointed the new CMD of ONGC. His interim appointment has been made for a period of 4 months or till a regular appointment is made, whichever is earlier. He has been directed to take charge tomorrow, which is the first day of his appointment. The charge as CMD ONGC has been given to him in addition to his present post as Director, Exploration. As per the appointment letter issued by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (Corporate Affairs Desk), he is the senior-most functional director and his new charge will be valid till either a regular appointment or till 31 December, 2022.
It may be recalled that the Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) had on 27 August conducted interviews for regular appointment to the post of CMD, for which nine candidates had been shortlisted and invited for the interview. However, only six appeared for the interview. Though eligible for regular selection, the outgoing CMD Alka Mittal chose not to appear for the interview. The other prominent name that gave the interview a miss despite being invited was CMD of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) SM Vaidya. On the other hand, those who did appear for the interview included Rajesh Kumar Srivastava, who has now been given additional charge as CMD. This keeps him in the race for the post of regular CMD of ONGC. Others who appeared for the interview included Engineers India Ltd (EIL) Chairperson Vartika Shukla, Arun Kumar Singh of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and one internal candidate from ONGC apart from Rajesh Srivastava, the Director (Offshore) Pankaj Kumar.
It may be recalled that Srivastava is also due to retire at the end of December and, hence, the process has begun also for the selection of the new Director, Exploration. There are six senior ONGC officers in the race for this post. In all, the Government has called six for the interview for consideration to be selected as new Director, Exploration. The interview will be held on 9 September at the CGO Complex, New Delhi. The candidates have permission to participate online too if they so prefer.
Those in consideration and having been called for the interview are Sanjeev Tokhi, presently Director, Exploration, in ONGC Videsh Ltd, Om Prakash Sinha, presently ED in ONGC, Vikas Jagadish Pandey, ED, ONGC, Sushma Rawat, ED, ONGC, Deep Chandra Pant, ED, ONGC and Priya Ranjan Mishra, Group General Manager, ONGC.
As per the practice, Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) recommends a name for a board-level position at least three months prior to the vacancy.
