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The Coal Ministry on Friday appointed Suresh Kumar, Additional Secretary of Coal, as the part-time Chairman and Managing Director of Coal India Ltd with immediate effect.
He replaces Gopal Singh, whose term was scheduled to end on May 30.
Responding to a communication from the Ministry, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on Thursday approved appointment of Kumar as Chairman.
The decision was conveyed to CIL on Friday. Singh is the Chairman and Managing Director of CIL’s Ranchi-based subsidiary Central Coalfields (CCL).
He was given additional charge of CIL on September 1, 2017, following superannuation of the last full-time Chairman Sutirtha Bhattacharya in August, 2017.
Initially, Singh was appointed for six months ending in February 2018.
The tenure was later extended by three months as the search for a full-time chairman was not over.
It is not known what triggered the removal of Singh.
But his selection as part-time chairman created controversy as he was part of the panel rejected by the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PSEB) for the CIL top job, in June 2017. “The board did not find any candidate suitable for the post and recommended that the government may choose an appropriate course of further action for selection,” PSEB opined.
This, however, did not stop Singh and other candidates rejected by PSEB to throw their hat for the top job again.
There were also unconfirmed reports of Singh being one of the nine candidates short-listed by the Appointments Committee for the CIL top job.
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