Top bureaucrats among 230 applicants for high profile CCI jobs

New Delhi, May 1 (PTI) As many as 230 persons, including
ex-Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla, former Corporate Affairs
Secretary R Bandyopadhyay and other senior bureaucrats and
eminent economists have lined up for the two high profile
jobs at the country's anti-monopoly watchdog, Competition
Commission of India (CCI).
A total of 65 persons, including Chawla and
Bandyopadhyay, are among the probable candidates for the
position of CCI Chairman, while another 165 persons have lined
up for the position of secretary at the commission, sources
close to the matter said.
Chawla retired as Finance Secretary on January 31 and
currently heads a committee on allocation, pricing and
utilisation of natural resources. Bandyopadhyay also retired
on the same day as Secretary of Corporate Affairs Ministry and
was earlier also in the race to succeed C B Bhave as the
chairman of market regulator Sebi, but lost out to another
former senior bureaucrat, U K Sinha.
The position of CCI chairman is being considered as a
highly powerful job, in light of the impending powers to be
given to this authority, after it finalises and notifies the
final merger and acquisition norms later this month, which
will come into effect next month.
The commission was established in 2003 to replace the
erstwhile Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices
Commission and Dhanendra Kumar was appointed as its first
chairman in February, 2009, and his term is due to expire next
month.
The incumbent CCI Chairman, Dhanendra Kumar, recently
said that the commission was targeting to finalise and notify
the norms by May 5, after it got delayed due to time sought by
the industry for their suggestions on the matter.
The CCI is also consulting with Sebi to remove any
anomalies between the takeover guidelines of the two
authorities.
The panel mandated to select the chairman and one member
is headed by S S Nijjar, a sitting Supreme Court judge.
Others in the race to succeed Dhanendra Kumar as CCI
chairman include at least four serving members of the
commission, including H C Gupta, Dr Geeta Gouri, Anurag Goel
and M L Tayal.
The applicants also include S C Gupta, former Chairman
of United Bank of India, Vijay Sharma, former secretary in the
environment and forests ministry Usha Mathur, CBDT Member
Prakash Chandra, Raghu Menon, Rajesh Chandra, R K Gupta,
Gajendra Haldea, A B Prasad, CBEC Member P Anjani Kumar, Ashok
Kumar, Bhashar Chatterjee, S C Balakrishnan, P Brahma Dutt and
Durgesh Shankar.