Assam raps Centre for delay in appointment of OIL CMD

Guwahati: The Congress government in Assam criticized the Centre for its delay in appointing Rupshikha Saikia Borah as the CMD of Oil India Limited (OIL). The party accused the NDA government of depriving an Assamese woman from heading the Navratna company that has a significant stake in the northeast’s hydrocarbon sector.
Government spokesperson Pradyut Bordoloi on Wednesday said the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) had recommended Borah’s name for the post of OIL CMD in February.
“She was supposed to take charge as the CMD today (Wednesday), but her appointment hasn’t been cleared. She is the first woman chartered account from Assam and is currently an OIL director. If she is appointed as CMD, she will be the third woman to head a Navratna company in the country,” Bordoloi said. He added that if Borah was not appointed as the CMD, it would be tantamount to ‘discrimination’. “The Centre kept her appointment pending in spite of the PESB’s recommendation. We have not come across any instance of the Centre sitting on the PESB’s recommendations for so long. We are hurt,” he added.
The search for a new CMD for OIL was necessitated after S K Srivastava retired from the post.
Chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention in clearing the decks for Borah’s appointment as OIL CMD and termed the delay ‘an injustice to women and Assam’.
The OIL is the country’s second-largest public sector oil and gas exploration company. Its operational headquarters is based in Assam’s Duliajan.
The state government also slammed Modi’s call for a ‘second green revolution’ covering eastern India. It claimed the UPA had already made such an announcement in 2008-09 and Assam had received 100% funding for schemes to boost its agriculture sector.
The All Assam Mahila Congress, too, slammed Modi on the issue. “The president of Assam Mahila Congress, Sahnaz Yasmin Haque, has strongly criticized the decision to reverse Rupshikha Saikia Borah’s appointment as OIL CMD. We also question Sarbananda Sonowal and Bijoya Chakravarty’s silence,” media coordinator Sona Barua said.