Govt may take over EMRI's Dial 108 ambulance services

The state government will not hesitate to take over Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) to ensure the continuance of the Dial 108 ambulance services as before, sources said.

EMRI is a non-governmental organisation promoted by Ramalinga Raju, former chairman of Satyam.

Four days ago, Axis Bank froze the accounts of EMRI. It shot off a letter asking EMRI to provide a fresh guarantee for the Rs 37-crore loan taken during 2006-07 and the interest component as the guarantee provided by Ramalinga Raju was not valid. EMRI’s dues are over Rs 42 crore to Axis Bank. There were reports that Ramalinga Raju had pledged the land given by the government to raise loan for EMRI for meeting the working capital needs.

When contacted, EMRI’s CEO Venkat Changavalli maintained that the government land was not used by EMRI to secure any loan. Instead, Ramalinga Raju pledged his personal lan. A senior government official also confirmed this. The Andhra Pradesh government had agreed to give about 15 acres to EMRI for setting up a telemedicine unit at Rajendranagar on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The land is still with the government, he said.

“Let there be no doubts about the viability of the EMRI,” the finance minister said. This is second instance that the government announced there will be no dilution of the 108 services after the Satyam scandal broke out.

Since April 2008, EMRI is a public-private partnership project between the government of Andhra Pradesh and Satyam, with the former contributing 95 per cent and the later 5 per cent. Before this, Satyam Computer Services founder B Ramalinga Raju, who started EMRI as part of his philanthropic activities, bore the full expenditure of EMRI for two years, including buying new ambulances and setting up the processes in place. He contributed 50 per cent from the third year onwards.

Following Axis Bank move, EMRI assured the bank to provide full guarantee through a separate company and sought three months for it. The EMRI CEO held talks with Axis chairman in Mumbai on January 13 and the latter agreed to reactivate EMRI account the same day. “The account was temporarily frozen only for a few hours,’’ Changavalli said.

At present, 652 ambulances are doing about 5,000 emergency trips a day and this was expected to increase to 6,000 trips by the January-end. There were also plans to induct 150 ambulances. The state government and EMRI joint venture is also extending fixed day health services (FDHS) in eight districts by using 78 mobile health vans. The number of FDHS vans estimated to touch 475 by the January.

Five directors and its chairman and former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam resigned from the EMRI board after the Satyam scandal broke out. The existing board members of (EMRI), who sailed with the idea of government taking over EMRI, said they would facilitate the transition to ensure that the quality of emergency relief operations is not sacrificed.