The Union Minister for Coal and Power, Piyush Goyal, called a meeting of top Coal India officials on June 19, to discuss ways to improve coal availability to power stations, according to sources.

While the detailed agenda of the meeting is not known, sources said, the chairman and managing director and director (technical) of CIL as well as its eight wholly-owned subsidiaries are asked to join the meeting. This is the first meeting of coal officials with the minister, ever since he assumed office last month.

Management crisis Meanwhile, CIL is virtually operating without a full-time chairman for a month, as the chairman and managing director, S Narsing Rao, is busy managing office of the Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao in Hyderabad.

He was handpicked by K Chandrasekhara Rao to join the State government as Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister.

Though he submitted his resignation, nearly a month ago, Narsing Rao is yet to be relieved from his responsibilities in CIL. Accordingly, he is managing dual responsibilities from Hyderabad.

The management crisis is more apparent at the subsidiary levels.

Out of eight subsidiaries, at least two mining subsidiaries — Bilaspur-based South Eastern Coalfields, Singrauli-based Northern Coalfields — do not have a full-time chairman.

To add to the problem, Dinesh Chandra Garg, chairman and managing director of Nagpur-based Western Coalfields, passed away on Tuesday.

He had suffered a cardiac arrest while in Hyderabad last week. He was about to retire later this year.

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