gfiles magazine

June 13, 2011

File blocker, not pusher

File blocker, not pusher 
A petroleum Secretary has been transferred for the first time in 13 years. The last one to be transferred was TS Vijayaraghavan in 1998. Since then, each incumbent of the post has held it until retirement. Now, in a sudden move, S Sundareshan, 1976-batch IAS officer from Kerala, has been replaced as Petroleum Secretary by Girish Chandra Chaturvedi. Sundareshan was dealing with several critical issues: the $9.6 billion Cairn-Vedanta deal is awaiting clearance, as is BP’s acquisition of 30% stake in Reliance Industries’ (RIL) 23 oil and gas blocks. Then there is the deadlock between the oil and gas regulator and RIL over production at the Krishna-Godavari basin’s D6 well. If insiders are to be believed, Sundareshan was one of the biggest hurdles in the clearance of the Cairn-Vedanta deal. He seemed not to understand that, if his boss, Murli Deora, could be shifted, so could he.

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