Govt denies extension to NTPC chairman, power secretary-led panel to search for new head

New Delhi: After denying extension of service to SAIL’s CS Verma, the government has decided to not to extend tenure of NTPC chairman and managing director Arup Roy Choudhury. Choudhury, 58, was appointed head of India’s largest power producer by the previous UPA government in September 2010 for five years term, which was extendable till he achieves retirement at the age of 60 years.[caption id=“attachment_1114601” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  NTPC chairman and managing director Arup Roy Choudhury. PTI[/caption] He completes the five-year term at the end of the month and the Ministry of Power has decided not to extend the term till 31 December 2016 when he would have achieved superannuation age, sources privy to the development said. He will be the second blue-chip PSU head to be shown the door. In June, the government denied an extension of service to steel maker SAIL head Verma. Sources said in a departure from convention where PSU board members including chairman are selected by government headhunter, PESB, the power ministry has formed a search committee headed by power secretary to look for a replacement for Choudhury. It remains unclear who the ministry will give charge of NTPC head when Choudhury’s term comes to an end on 31 August. Normally the senior most director on the company board is given the charge but there are instances during the past one year where senior bureaucrats in the ministry are given additional responsibility to manage the PSU. The case in point is Oil India, the nation’s second biggest state explorer, where a joint secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas was given additional charge after incumbent SK Srivastava superannuated at June-end. The government had in June this year refused to extend the tenure of SAIL chairman CS Verma till his superannuation four years later. Verma was appointed SAIL chairman and managing director for a five-year term in June 2010 by the previous UPA government, but was eligible for an extension till he attained the superannuation age of 60 years in September 2019. His five-year tenure ended on 10 June and steel secretary Rakesh Singh has been given the charge of SAIL chairman for three months. Prior to that, the last time a ‘Maharatna’ PSU head was denied extension was in May 2006 when Subir Raha’s term was not extended as CMD of Oil and Natural Gas Corp. A civil engineer from BITS with a post graduation in management from IIT, Choudhury started his career in 1979 and worked in prominent public and private sector companies such as RITES, IRCON and DLF etc. He was earlier CMD, National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC), the largest construction Central Public Sector Undertaking (CPSU) of India. PTI