Click to play videoHyderabad: Satyam’s former chairperson B Ramalinga Raju fulfilled his corporate responsibility when a charity group promoted by him donated ambulances for Hyderabad. Or did he?
The Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI), a non-profit organisation promoted by Raju, started the ‘108’ service in Hyderabad. The 108 ambulances run by EMRI have helped many accident victims in the city.
A Public Interest Litigation filed in the Supreme Court, however, alleges that the ambulance service is a Rs 5,400-crore scam. The PIL, which is based on Right to Information application, alleges Raju got the Andhra Pradesh government to pay for most of the operational costs of the ambulance service.
The Andhra government first sanctioned Rs 14,000 monthly for each ambulance and the amount was gradually increased to Rs 65,000 and then to Ra 1.2 lakh.
Raju next roped in 12 other state governments to similarly support the EMRI’s ambulance services in their states, the PIL alleges. Each state government provided 95 per cent of the funds and EMRI allegedly paid just 5 per cent of the operating costs.
Eight states didn’t float tenders for ambulance service and when tenders were asked for they were tailored to favour EMRI, the PIL alleges. The Supreme Court issued notices to the state governments and EMRI in November 2008.
EMRI on Tuesday announced it would make public all its financial details. The group had big names on its board: former president A P J Abdul Kalam, former NASSCOM chief Kiran Karnik, ICICI Bank’s K V Kamath, CII chief mentor Tarun Das and Krishna Palepu of the Harvard Business School.
They have all resigned after Raju confessed to doctoring Satyam’s accounts for years and resigned last week.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
 |
 |
 |
|
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.