New Delhi, Mar 24 (PTI) A Parliamentary panel has taken serious note of the abnormal delay in appointment of a woman director on the board of state-run NTPC Ltd.

The Parliamentary Committee on Public Undertakings in its 8th report on NTPC Ltd, tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, also asked the power ministry to escalate the matter to the Cabinet Secretary level.

"DPE (Department of Public Enterprises) should seriously look into the issue of abnormal delay in appointment of women Director in NTPC, apprise the Committee of the specific reasons for taking unduly long period on this issue and identify the factors responsible with a view to take corrective measures to avoid reoccurrence of such inordinate delay in future," it said.

The Ministry of Power (MoP) should escalate the matter to the Cabinet Secretary level informing about the inordinate delay, the report added.

Taking note of delay in appointment of independent directors, the panel said the DPE should undertake an introspection of its working, particularly about the filling up of vacancies of directors in CPSUs to identify the factors responsible for abnormal delays.

The DPE should immediately develop a system of a digital dashboard to maintain database of the positions of independent directors in all CPSUs with a view to suo-moto initiating the process of new appointments at least six months before occurrence of the vacancies, it added.

It also suggested that MoP should analyse all the factors responsible for the negative impact on the financial performance of the NTPC and take up the matter with CERC (Central Electricity Regulatory Commission) for review of the tariff regulations, giving due credence to ground realities so as to ensure that the power generators like NTPC do not financially suffer simply on account of some technical specifications.

It noted that some of the projects have been delayed for more than 8 years. In such a situation, it is imperative on the part of the MoP and NTPC to sort out the local issues expeditiously and gear up their machinery to get these delayed projects completed and commissioned at the earliest.

The NTPC should explore the possibility of developing these coal blocks/mines on their own and if considered necessary, a separate department/vertical within the company may be created to exclusively deal with the matter, it suggested.

It also suggested that the NTPC should earmark a separate and exclusive budget for safety matters.

It added NTPC should explore the possibility of higher revenue realisation in disposal of fly ash generated at different units of its thermal power plants.

For this purpose, the company in coordination with the local authorities and also elected public representatives of the area, may consider setting up of plants for manufacturing of bricks, tiles and blocks by using the fly ash from the nearest thermal power stations.

The panel emphasised the timely installation of FGD (Flue-gas desulfurisation) system in all the thermal power plants of NTPC as this will substantially reduce the adverse effects on the environment.

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