4 remaining members to continue on EMRI board

The existing board members of the Emergency and Management Research Institute (EMRI), a non-profit organisation founded by disgraced former Satyam chairman B Ramalinga Raju and his family, have decided to continue on the board.

Jayaprakash Narayan, national coordinator of Lok Satta; K Krishnam Raju, chairman of Suchitra Group; Raj Reddy, professor at Carnegie Mellon University; and Rajat Gupta, chairman of Indian School of Business board, are still on the board.

On Monday, chairman and emeritus on the board and former President APJ Abdul Kalam had resigned. Former Nasscom president and member of the newly-formed Satyam board Kiran Karnik too had resigned from the directorship of the governing board on January 9.

Besides them, five other directors, including ICICI Bank MD and CEO KV Kamath, CII chief mentor Tarun Das and Harvard professor Krishna G Palepu, have also resigned from the 11-member governing board after Ramalinga Raju admitted to a Rs 7,000-crore fraud last week.

In a joint statement, the current EMRI board members said they have decided to continue. “If the governments feel that the emergency relief can be best provided by taking over EMRI under the laws of the land, we will do everything possible to facilitate such a transition,’’ they said.

They also said they would work to raise resources to continue the work. “The acts of commission or omission of founders of EMRI in other organisations should not undermine the public interest in area of emergency relief and management,’’ they said.

The board has asked EMRI Chief Executive Officer Venkat Chengavalli to make public all the agreements entered into with various state governments.

It also asked him to provide all information relating to money received from all state and Union government agencies. It will also be appointing an independent agency to ensure high ethical standards into the financial and operational details of EMRI.