Coal India gets Sutirtha Bhattacharya as new chief

Public Enterprise Selection Board (PSEB) finalised Sutirtha Bhattacharya, a 1985 Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer as the new chairman and managing director of Coal India limited (CIL).

Bhattacharya was selected from the list of 12 candidates who applied for the post the head of Coal India, the almost monopolistic coal mining company of ‘Maharatna’ stature. Bhattacharya is currently on super-annuation and last served as the CMD of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL), Hyderabad, the second largest coal mining company after CIL.

He has earlier served in urban development, power, agriculture and land revenue departments of the Andhra Pradesh government.

CIL is without a full time chairman and managing director for almost six months now. The last CMD S Narsing Rao resigned from the post in May this year.

Among the other shortlisted candidates were IAS officers from the government of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Manipur and an executive of Indian Railway Traffic Service, ministry of railways.

The government advertised for the post aggressively spending around Rs 1.5 crore. It received a lukewarm response and negligible participation from the private sector, while the applications numbers was also less than expected.

Government was trying to get a full time CMD for the company before the coal sector opens up for commercial mining, as allowed under the latest ordinance. Supreme Court in its judgement dated 24 September cancelled all but four coal block allocation made to the private sector in past two decades. It also asked CIL to take over these mines till they are re-allocated.

CIL CMD is one of the most sought after position in the country, with executives, IAS officers and other government officials in the fray in past. However, now marred with controversies and held to ransom by unions for reasons ranging from commercial mining to disinvestment, the post is usually touted as a crown of thorns.