While the new state of Telangana is all set to be formed on June 2, State-owned Coal India ltd (CIl) Chairman S Narsing Rao is likely to take up a top assignment there, with sources indicating that he could be in the core team of the Chief Minister.
According to sources familiar with the development, the CIl Chairman, who is a 1986 batch IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh, has received feelers from Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekar Rao, to join him in Hyderabad as the Principal Secretary in Chief Minister's Office (CMO). Chandrasekar Rao is tipped to be the new Chief Minister of Telangana.
Though Narsing Rao could not be contacted, Coal Ministry sources indicated that the movement could be on the cards and with Narsing Rao belonging to Telangana, his appointment could be helpful for the new dispensation in the soon to be created state.
As per rules, the CIl Chairman could be sent there once there is a distribution of All India Service (AIS) level officials between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Being a new state, his experience and familiarity with the geography could come in handy, if Rao is appointed in the CMO of Chandrasekar Rao.
Rao, who became the Chairman of CIl in April 2012, was the first bureaucrat in the 100-year old history of the Maharatna company to become its head. Sources said that though an official of a public sector entity needs to give a three-months notice before quitting, in his case, the relieving letter may be given in a couple of weeks time, once his appointment in the new state is confirmed as Telangana is to come into existence on June 2.
The CIl head still has three years left before his tenure in the PSU comes to an end. If Narsing Rao goes to Hyderabad, the Maharatna company is likely to remain headless for some time till a full time Chairman is elected. Prior to Narsing Rao's arrival, CIl had remained headless for a year after Partha Bhattacharya had retired as Chairman on February 28, 2011. The then Director (Technical) N C Jha remained as acting Chairman for a year before Rao took over from him in April 2012.
Narsing Rao was chief of Singareni Collieries Company ltd, a State-owned entity headquartered at Khammam, before going to CIl. Incidentally Khammam district will now come under Telangana, and therefore his expertise of having handled a company with operations in areas falling under the new state will be an added advantage for Rao, if he moves there.
Incidentally if Narsing Rao moves out of CIl, the new BJP-led dispensation which is to assume power at the Centre under the leadership of Narendra Modi next week, will have a task at hand of appointing a new Chairman of the Maharatna company as soon as possible. The urgency would have to be shown, sources pointed out, as CIl has off late struggled to meet its annual production targets and if it remains headless for a long time, then it would become all the more difficult for it to operate efficiently.