The government has approved another extension for BSNL Chairman and Managing Director R K Upadhyay till the end of June when he will turn 60 years, the retirement age.
"He has been given extension till end of June when he completes 60 years of his age," a Department of Telecom official told PTI.
Upadhyay's tenure, as per his appointment letter, was to end in April. He was given a month's extension by DoT after the approval from the then telecom minister Kapil Sibal.
Sibal had asked DoT to look at the extension of Upadhyay's term as BSNL CMD while holding back approval for Anupam Shrivastava, director for consumer mobile services. He has been shortlisted by Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) for the post.
Sibal was of the view that Upadhyay's appointment letter had a clause for extension, after evaluation of his performance, and DoT should give him an opportunity by going through the process so as to avoid any possible legal tussle.
BSNL reported a loss of Rs 7,884 crore for the financial year 2012-13.
Later, Sibal approved the appointment of Shrivastava from his level but by then there was hardly any time left for Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) under the UPA government to decide on his appointment in view of general elections.
ACC has to also approved the appointment of listed public sector firm MTNL CMD which is headless after AK Garg retired from the post on May 31. Garg had also sought extension but he attained age of 60 in April and, as per DoT sources, was denied further extension.
PESB has recommended name of MTNL's Finance Director PK Purwar for the post.
