Steel Ministry draws Par panel's flak for ignoring PESB

Steel Ministry ignoring a candidate selected by government headhunter PESB for the top job at NMDC today drew flak from a Parliamentary panel which said the move created doubts about transparency in appointments.

"The manner in which the name of M S Rana who was duly recommended by PESB was ignored and subsequently the panel scrapped by the Ministry creates doubt of its being transparent in the whole process," said the Standing Committee on Coal and Steel in its report, tabled in Lok Sabha today.

NMDC has been without a full-time Chairman and Managing Director since December, 2011. PESB had in July, 2011, recommended the name of Rana, CMD, Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India, to head the country's largest iron ore miner.

The Committee, headed by Kalyan Banerjee, said it was surprised to see that PESB's recommendation was not accepted by the Ministry of Steel and instead the Director (Technical) was given the additional charge for three months.

Steel Ministry subsequently gave SAIL Chairman C S Verma the additional charge of heading NMDC as well.

"The Committee feel that important policy decisions are to be taken at this level which needs full attention and some one with an additional charge would not be able to do justice as there are pressing demands to run the organisation efficiently which needs urgent handling," the report said.

"The Committee, therefore, recommended that at least now immediate steps be taken so that the process is expedited and NMDC gets a full fledged CMD immediately," it added.