New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS): The government Monday removed three independent directors from the board of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) effective Friday, the day the company announced at its AGM about having invested Rs.81,890 crore in bringing on stream newer discoveries.

"P. Umashankar, S. Ravi and R.K. Singh have ceased to be Independent Directors on the board of the company on Sep 19, 2014 i.e the date of the 21st Annual General Meeting of the company," ONGC said in a stock exchange filing.

The removal follows similar marching orders for four independent directors of Indian Oil (IOC), two of Engineers India Ltd, one of Hindustan Petroleum Corp and all five non-executive or independent directors of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd.

Earlier, the NDA government had also removed all the independent directors on the board of state miner Coal India who had been appointed by the previous UPA administration.

The mode of removing the ONGC directors was the same as in the case of IOC, where in absence of the company moving a resolution seeking confirmation of the concerned directors' appointments, they ceased to be directors on the company board.

IOC had not moved a resolution for confirmation of appointment of K Jairaj, Nesar Ahmad, Sunil Krishna and Sayan Chatterjee at its AGM on Aug 27.

In the absence of shareholder approval, the four appointed by the previous UPA government in March this year for a three-year term, ceased to be directors on IOC board.