The NDA government has removed three independent directors, appointed by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, from the board of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).“P Umashankar, S Ravi, and R K Singh have ceased to be independent directors on the board of the company on September 19, 2014 , the date of the 21st annual general meeting (AGM) of the company,” ONGC said, in a regulatory filing to the BSE.
The removal follows similar marching orders for four independent directors of Indian Oil (IOC), two of Engineers India Ltd, one of Hindustan Petroleum Corp and all five non-executive or independent directors of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. Earlier, the NDA government had also removed all the independent directors on the board of state miner Coal India who had been appointed by the previous UPA administration. The mode of removing the ONGC directors was the same as in the case of IOC, where in absence of the company moving a resolution seeking confirmation of the concerned directors’ appointments, they ceased to be directors on the company board.
