MoU over EMRI may be signed soon

HYDERABAD: The state government is likely to sign an agreement with the GVK Group on running the Emergency Management Research Institute (EMRI-108) services in a couple of days. Though the duo had struck a deal two weeks ago to sign a pact, there had been no progress, forcing the GVK Group to take up the issue with chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.Sources said the GVK Group was miffed over the delay in signing the memorandum of understanding (MoU) and threatened to withdraw its services unless the MoU was signed within 48 hours. Following the arrest of ‘Satyam’ Ramalinga Raju, GVK Group took over the responsibility to run the EMRI call-centre on the request of the then chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy. However, no formal agreement was signed between the state government and the GVK Group.The issue had been kept pending since then for unknown reasons.While the state government was providing 95 per cent of the required funds, the remaining five per cent was being borne by the GVK Group to run the services.Despite erratic release of funds from the state government at a few instances, the GVK Group managed to keep the services in operations to an extent.After much dilly-dallying over continuing the services, the state government recently agreed to sign the MoU with the GVK Group in principle but is yet to sign the pact.A delegation of GVK Group called on the chief minister a couple of days ago and took up the issue with him stating that the Group has spent about `120 crore till date and they cannot operate the services further unless the state government signs the agreement within 48 hours.They cited financial and managerial issues as reason for the difficulty in continuing the service. Kiran Kumar Reddy reportedly assured to make arrangements for signing the MoU immediately and has also reportedly agreed to release funds.