AK Jana vigorously defends IGL's reputation
Indraprastha Gas (IGL) managing director AK Jana has hit back at allegations levelled against IGL senior vice-president Ajai Tyagi over the purchase of two land parcels in 2019.
"Do you really think these types of things are possible in this age?" Jana tells this report on August 23 (2021) in response to a question about the purchase of a 3000-sq metre piece of land that IGL bought in Karnal in July (2019) to set up a city gate station and 2000-sq metres of land bought by IGL in Gurugram, also for a city gate station. "Even the smallest of small purchase proposals have to go through so many processes, procedures and approvals."
Adds Jana: "I am not trying to defend anyone, but the company did due diligence for all the deals, and the company did the deals through a board-approved procedure." Jana believes the June 21 (2021) complaint sent by Dharamvir Singh to the PMO, which forwarded it on June 26 (2021) to oil secretary Tarun Kapoor, is the work of "certain businessmen" who want favours from IGL.
"Some people want to misuse IGL, and when they can't do that, they try to tarnish the image of employees by shooting off complaints," he said. Jana adds that IGL is a listed and reputable company with all the necessary checks and balances in place.
"We have an audit and vigilance process," he said. A polished public speaker, Jana enjoys a good industry reputation and is known for his approachable and friendly style.
Jana replaced earlier IGL managing director ES Ranganathan on June 16 (2020) from GAIL Gas, which he led from May (2018) to May 15 (2020). During his time at GAIL Gas, Jana was credited with boosting the company's net profit from Rs81cr ($11.6m) in 2018-19 to Rs156cr ($22m) in 2019-20.
