By IANS,
Hyderabad : The Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) has asked the family of tainted founder and former chairman of Satyam Computer Services B. Ramalinga Raju to delink themselves from the institute and appealed to former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to return to the body as chairman emeritus.
The governing board of EMRI, which met here, decided that the new board would now be appointed by an independent group of eminent citizens and it would ensure “self-regulating, sustainable and accountable mechanism of governance”.
The board decided to bring amendments to Articles of Association of EMRI for this purpose.
EMRI, a brain child of Raju, is a non-profit body operating 108 ambulance service in Andhra Pradesh and seven other states.
“The board unanimously acknowledged the initiative of the Raju family. However, in view of the current circumstances, and in the interest of the future operations of EMRI, they regretfully requested the members of the Raju family to delink themselves from EMRI,” said a statement.
“In the light of the proposal to make EMRI board independent and self-regulatory, the board has requested Bharat Ratna Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to reconsider his resignation and take up the role of chairman emeritus of EMRI.”
Kalam and six other eminent board members quit last week in the wake of massive fraud in Satyam admitted by Raju Jan 7. Raju had also quit as chairman of EMRI governing board but asked the body to continue its work.
EMRI had Sunday declared that it would continue its work without any financial support from Raju and his family and that it was scouting for donors, philanthropists and corporates to raise required funds.
The statement said the governing board met Tuesday. The meeting was attended by Raj Reddy, professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Jayaprakash Narayan, leader Lok Satta, K. Krishnam Raju, secretary, Indo-American Cancer Institute and Venkat Changavalli, CEO, EMRI. Rajat Gupta, chairman Indian School of Business (ISB) Board joined the meeting over telephone from abroad.
The board appreciated the efforts of EMRI, which is handling over 8,200 emergencies per day with 1,539 ambulances in eight states — Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Assam.