CIL to seek shareholders nod to extend CMD's tenure

Coal India will seek shareholders' nod for extending the tenure of Sutirtha Bhattacharya as its Chairman and Managing Director till August 31, 2017. 58-year-old Bhattacharya took charge on January 5 as Coal India's full-time CMD, a post which had been lying vacant for over six months. Shareholders nod will be sought in annual general meeting of the coal behemoth scheduled for September 23 in Kolkata, the company said in a filing to the BSE.

"Sutirtha Bhattacharya, who was appointed by the Board of Directors as an Additional Director with effect from January 5, 2015 and who holds office upto the date of this AGM... be and is hereby appointed as CMD with effect from January 5, 2015 upto August 31, 2017 i.e. the date of his superannuation, or until further orders, whichever is earlier," it added.

Bhattacharya is a 1985 batch IAS officer of Telangana cadre and is a Physics graduate from Presidency College, Kolkata with vast experience in different sectors in governance. He has served as Principal Secretary (Energy) of Andhra Pradesh and prior to this he was CMD of the Telangana based Singareni Collieries Company Ltd since May 10, 2012. "Board of Directors considered that in view of the background and experience of Bhattacharya, it would be in the interest of the company to appoint him as CMD of the company... The Board recommends the resolution... for the approval of the members," the filing said. PESB had in November recommended Bhattacharya for the post while the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet had later cleared his name for the top job at CIL.

Coal India was without a full-time head since S Narsing Rao resigned from the post in May 2014 to join the Telangana government. Additional Secretary (Coal) A K Dubey was given the additional charge as CMD of CIL from June 26 last year. The appointment of Bhattacharya comes at time when the government has announced to ramp up the Coal India production to one billion tonnes by 2019.

Coal India, which accounts for over 80 percent of the domestic coal output, produced 494.23 million tonnes of coal in the last fiscal as against a target of 507 MT.