With skeletons keep tumbling out of Satyam Computer’s cupboard, the Orissa government has started putting activities of the group companies in the state under scanner. While Satyam Computer has a development centre in Bhubaneswar, its subsidiary Maytas Infra has business interests in the power and irrigation sectors in the state.
KVK Nilachal, which signed an MoU with the state government to set up a 2000mw thermal station at Gurudijhatia in Cuttack district, has been asked to produce the company article of association (CAA) so as to ascertain the stakes of Maytas Infra in it. ?We have directed KVK Nilachal to produce all the company documents in original so as to know the involvement of Maytas in the company business,? state energy & IT minister Surya Narayan Patro told FE.
The KVK Nilachal executives, however, told the government that Maytas is a minority stakeholder in the company and its project would not be affected owing to the Saytam fiasco. Maytas Infra has, in fact, been appointed as the EPC contractor for the power project. Maytas Infra has taken up some rural electrification jobs in the state under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY). The company is executing the project as a sub-contractor of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd, to which the state government has entrusted the RGGVY works in Jajpur district. The Orissa government has suggested PGCIL to reconsider its decision to engage Maytas in rural electrification works.
?We have written to PGCIL to take a fresh view on the jobs awarded to Maytas in view of Satyam’s financial debacle?, Patro said.The state government has engaged central utilities like NTPC and PGCIL to do rural electrification. These utilities, in turn, have sub-let the jobs to various infrastructure companies like Maytas Infra.The state irrigation department, which has awarded several contracts to Maytas Infra, is also reviewing the possibility of the works being affected. Referring to Satyam’s second campus in the state, Patro said, ?We have decided to keep on hold the decision regarding allotment of land to Satyam Computers in the Infocity II in view of the developments taking place in Hyderabad?.
Satyam had asked for 100 acres adjacent to its development centre at the heart of Bhubaneswar for its second campus. The state government, however, had promised to allot the land in Infocity II being developed by state-owned Industrial Development Corporation as an IT SEZ on the outskirts of the city.
Satyam Computer, which started its operations in Orissa in 1999, has meanwhile increased the headcount at its software development centre to 500. It added a 35,000-sqft IT block to its existing 60,000-sqft block in 2004. Satyam’s Bhubaneswar centre is one of the top two software exporters of the state.
Satyam’s promoter Ramalinga Raju had, in fact, started his activities in Orissa as a civil contractor in the Indravati multi-purpose Dam project in late 1980s.