The Prime Minister's Office on Monday cleared appointments of the chairmen of eight nationalised banks and promotion of 10 general managers as executive directors.

PMO over-ruled the objections from the Establishment Officer and also from the Cabinet Secretariat about the status of
B category and A category banks. There was a hitch from Establishment Officer P K Mishra who sat on the promotion file of chairmen of public sector banks.

Forty MPs have written letters to the prime minister about the intentional delays of appointments of public sector banks' chairmen. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had a meeting with the prime minister recently on the inordinate delay.
Finally, at the instance of PMO the file was cleared on Monday.

The prime minister sought the details and cleared it in a single day. PMO went by the recommendations of the screening committee.

Insiders in the establishment section of the personnel ministry murmur that some senior officers played into the politicking of Uttar Pradesh Congress leaders to get key postings and hence the delay.