This is probably for the first time that public-sector headhunter (PESB), on Friday, became almost dysfunctional as it has Madhusudan Prasad (Retd IAS:1981:HY) as the lone Member of the selection board. The acting PESB Chairman Ms Gauri Kumar (Retd IAS:1979:GJ) received her farewell on Friday. So, Mr Prasad is the lone Member on the Board.

 

This one-member Selection Board was left with no option but to postpone the scheduled interview for CMD's post for Mahanadi Coalfields Limited which was scheduled for Friday, Sept 28, Sept 2018.

 

Indianmandarins has reliably learnt that the Board has further decided to abstain from interviews until the appointment of Chairman & Member/Members are announced.

 

As per convention, PESB schedules selection-interview and informs the shortlisted candidates at least fifteen days in advance. Since, the Board appears clueless over a time-frame of appointments, it is constrained to conduct selection-interview further.

 

It may be mentioned that the four-member board (including Chairman) became headless after Sanjay Kothari (Retd IAS:1979:HY) moved to Raiseena-Hills as Secretary to the President of India in July 2017. Further Anshuman Das, being the senior most Member, was given additional charge of Chairman but he too who handed over the baton to Ms Gauri Kumar (Retd IAS:1979:GJ) on 18 August; almost forty days ahead of completion of her tenure.

 

For over a year Public­-sector headhunter (PESB) has been functioning with the depleted strength at Board­-level which has created an atmosphere of uncertainty across CPSEs and other stake holders.