New Delhi (22.03.2021): The lethargy or the inclination to be overcautious or both have led to a catch 22 situation: since the PESB has been headless for a long time, the search-cum-selection process for filling the board-level appointments in the CPSUs have come to naught.

Procedurally, the search-cum-selection-committee to select a Board-level position in PSUs is headed by the Chairman of Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB). Explicit in the procedures is the fact that no search-cum-selection committee can be constituted in the absence of the PESB chairman.

While all Ministries involved in supervising the CPSUs have been a victim of these catch 22 procedures and have been cursed with running CPSUs with inadequate board-level appointees, the MoHUA has taken the initiative to request the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet for exemption from the provision of PESB Chairman as the Chairperson of the search-cum-selection committee.

If MoHUA’s request is granted, the Union Cabinet Secretary may chair the SCSC to break the deadlock and find the successor to Dr. M Ravi Kanth (Retd IAS:1986:KL) who vacated the post in September 2019. He may also initiate the process to fill the CMD post in HUDCO that has been vacant for over one and a half years.

(By Rakesh Ranjan)