The Secretary or Additional Secretary of the Coal Ministry will have to shoulder the responsibility of steering Coal India Ltd when Acting Chairman N C Jha retires at the end of this month until the time a full-time chief is appointed for India's largest coal miner.
N C Jha will continue as the acting Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of CIL till his retirement on January 31.
"In two to three months, full-time CMD of CIL may be appointed. In the meantime, either the Secretary or Additional Secretary with the Ministry of Coal may take the charge of CMD of the public sector firm," Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told PTI.
While Alok Perti is the Secretary, Zohra Chatterji is the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Coal.
The process of selecting a full-time CMD for CIL commenced in December last year.
The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB), which handles hiring for public sector firms, came out with an advertisement last month inviting applications from suitable candidates for the top post.
"PESB is seeking qualified candidates for the post of Chairman and Managing Director, Coal India," PESB had said on its website.
"It is requested that the names of candidates... Who are found suitable for the said post as per the requirements... along with their up-to-date bio-data... May kindly be forwarded to PESB by January 23, 2012," the PESB said.
After receiving applications, PESB would scrutinise them and short-list candidates for an interview for the top job.
Jha, Director (Technical) of CIL, was given the additional charge of CMD after the PSU's former chief Partha S Bhattcharyya retired in February, 2011.
Earlier, the PESB had recommended Bharat Coking Coal Ltd chief Tapas Lahiri as the first choice and Western Coalfields Ltd head D C Garg as the second choice for the top post in CIL. However, both short-listed candidates failed to get vigilance clearances.