New Delhi: The Centre has appointed seasoned bureaucrat and gas sector expert Anil Kumar Jain as the new chairman of the oil and gas sector regulatory body the Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), an official order said.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved the appointment of Jain, who retired as coal secretary in October last year, as the new chairman of PNGRB.
The ACC has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, based on the recommendations of the Search Committee, for the appointment of Anil Kumar Jain, reported PTI.
He has been appointed as the chairperson PNGRB “for a period of five years from the date assumption of charge of the post or till attaining the age of 65 years, or until further orders, whichever is the earliest, on a consolidated pay package of Rs 4.50 lakhs per month (without house and car) or as revised by the Ministry of Finance from time to time,” the ACC order of May 15 said.
Bihar-born, 1986-batch IAS officer from the Madhya Pradesh cadre will fill a position that has been lying vacant since Dinesh Kumar Sarraf retired on December 4, 2020. An MBA and a Diploma holder in Foreign Trade, Jain completed his Doctorate on the topic of Natural Gas from TERI University in New Delhi (2020).
Jain was selected after three failed attempts. On June 2, 2021, former power secretary Sanjeev Sahai headed a list of three shortlisted candidates but the list was turned down, as the oil ministry had not firmly recommended a single candidate. In November 2021, the government re-advertised the post and held interviews on February 2, 2022.
