Former Power Secretary Sanjiv Nandan Sahai who virtually made a last-minute entry into the list of candidates has been recommended for the post of the Chairman of Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) by a selection committee chaired by Niti Aayog, as per the sources. An official announcement in this regard is yet to be made.
Sources told the media that Sahai was the last to be interviewed by the panel. They further added that Sahai was in close competition with former Director-Marketing of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Gurmeet Singh, who is said to have been recommended by Petroleum Secretary Tarun Kapoor. On May 28, Kapoor asked panel members to include more names they think fit the job.
Following this, Sahai was approached and he was included in the list on May 30 or 31, they said.
Other candidates interviewed on June 2 for the PNGRB Chairman post included former Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) CMD Shashi Shanker and former ONGC Director SK Moitra.
The PNGRB board comprises four members apart from the Chairman and it has been almost dead since December as Satpal Garg is the only member in the quorum. Sanjiv Nandan Sahai is a 1986 batch IAS officer of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa- Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre. He took over as Secretary in the Ministry of Power in 2019. He has also held several positions in the bureaucracy throughout his career, including five years in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) between 1998 and 2003.
