Andhra Pradesh CM seeks PM's help to form team to rescue Satyam

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has urged the Prime Minister to immediately constitute a team with the likes of Infosys' Narayana Murthy, Wipro's Azim Premji and TCS' S Ramadorai to manage Satyam's affairs.

"Our major and immediate concern is about the fate of 53,000 employees of the company. I have no doubt in my mind that the law will take its own course but as majority of the clients\customers of Satyam are Fortune 500 companies, they may be averse to do business with companies having fraudulent managements," Reddy wrote to Manmohan Singh.

Copies of the letter were sent to Home Minister P Chidambaram, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Union minister for company affairs Prem Chand Gupta.

"They (customers) have every right to cancel the existing contracts, which will jeopardise the interests of employees and innocent shareholders," Reddy argued.

Earlier in the day, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said government was not looking at taking over the company, while Narayana Murthy said Infosys would not acquire a tainted company.

Reddy, in his letter, stressed that a management team comprising persons of integrity and competence has to be constituted to "restore confidence of global customers in its business continuity..."

He also noted that the revelations of Satyam chairman B Ramalinga Raju "have come as a grave shock to everybody in the country. We, in Andhra Pradesh State, are particularly disturbed as the headquarters of the company is in Hyderabad with many operational facilities spread across the state."