'PSUs of the people, not by the govt'

Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Chairman and Managing Director Subir Raha today said a public sector company was owned by the people of India and not by individuals in a given office with a given tenure.

"A listed company, even in the public sector, remains a listed company and not a department. Administrative instructions cannot override the law," Raha said at the company's annual general meeting. When asked on his comments at the AGM, Raha refused to elaborate and said, "ONGC follows 100 per cent corporate governance."

Raha and the petroleum ministry recently clashed over the appointment of two more government nominees on the ONGC board "" Director General Hydrocarbons VK Sibal and M S Srinivasan, special secretary in the petroleum ministry. At the AGM, the government did not press for the appointment of Sibal and Srinivasan.

The shareholders approved the reappointment of two fulltime directors N K Mitra and A K Hazarika, Indian Oil Corporation representative N K Nayyar, and two government nominees "" P K Sinha and Sunjoy Joshi "" on the board.

The AGM went off smoothly, though some shareholders raised the issue of the petroleum ministry wanting to appoint politicians on the boards of state-owned oil companies. They, however, supported the management's stand on the appointment of the two new government nominees.

Shareholders also expressed concern over the company being asked to share the subsidy burden with the oil marketing companies.

A shareholder said it meant loss to the shareholders, to which Raha said it was a directive of the government and the sentiments of the shareholders would be conveyed to the government.