Modi sacks directors of 3 more oil marketing firms
New Delhi, Aug. 31: After sacking four independent directors of IOC, the Narendra Modi- government is now seeking to remove nine similar Congress-appointees from the board of ONGC, HPCL and MRPL.
The NDA government is reviewing all appointments made by the previous UPA regime during its last year in office and is removing the political appointees wherever possible, sources said.
After getting Indian Oil, the nation’s largest oil firm, to drop four independent directors and Engineers India Ltd to boot out two, it is now seeking to sack former power secretary P. Uma Shankar, chartered accountant S. Ravi and former BPCL chairman R. K. Singh from the board of ONGC.
It also wants CA Rohit Khanna to be removed from the board of HPCL. Also, chartered accountant C. L. Shah, former IAS officer Neela Gangadharan, Indian Institute of Science Professor Jayant M. Modak, Professor of Marketing at Banaras Hindu University Usha Kiran Rai and ship master Capt. John Prasad Menezes are being sought to be removed from board of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd ( MRPL), a subsidiary of ONGC.
Sources said the removal is being done in the same manner as was the case in IOC — by not getting a resolution for their appointment approved by the shareholders at annual general meetings of the companies. Indian Oil did not move a resolution for confirmation of appointment of K. Jairaj, Nesar Ahmad, Sunil Krishna and Sayan Chatterjee at its AGM in Mumbai on August 27.