Company affairs ministry to revamp field formations

The ministry of company affairs is planning to reorganise its field formations by dividing the regional directorates in the country into six zones, to effectively tackle the increasing work load.

As part of the restructuring, the ministry plans to bring all field formations consisting of the registrar of companies (RoCs) and the regional directorates under an additional secretary for whom a post would be created.

As per the cadre review report finalised by the ministry for officials under the Indian Company Law Service (ICLS), the number of posts for the regional directorates is expected to be increased to 14 from 6 at present to effectively manage the work load. The ministry has also proposed to add two zones for effective distribution of workload.

The cadre review report is likely to be submitted to the Cabinet for approval. "The cadre review has to be seen in the context of the larger scheme to make the department of company affairs more effective. With the computerisation under MCA 21 project to be completed next year and the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) likely to be set up, the department would have to reorganise itself in the new environment," a senior company affairs official said.

Under the MCA 21 project, companies will be able to file documents online to the RoCs. As part of the project, the ministry is computerising all records related to over 6,50,000 companies.

More RoC offices are also expected to be set up The ministry has proposed two additional RoCs for Delhi and Mumbai and an additional RoC for Kolkata. However, it has dropped the plan to set up offices of RoCs at new locations.

Earlier, the ministry was considering setting them up in Dehradun, Raipur and Pondicherry.

The ministry also wants to shift the RoCs in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Chennai to new buildings keeping in mind the future needs. The new buildings will house the RoC, official liquidator and the NCLT at one place.

The ministry is also considering strengthening the inspection department which has a sanctioned strength of 49 officers, but nearly half the posts are vacant.

At present, the sanctioned strength of officers under the ICLS is 231, who are divided into four grades. All posts in the field offices and some posts at the headquarters are manned by ICLS cadre.