Satyam a blot on state, country: Rajasekhar Reddy

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) Describing the fraud at Satyam Computer Services as a blot on the image of the state and the country, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy Monday said the guilty must be punished.

'What Satyam has done is a big fraud. It is a blot on the state and the country. The guilty must be punished,' Rajasekhar Reddy told reporters here.

The chief minister was in the national capital to hold discussions with the central leadership on varied issues.

Rajasekhar Reddy maintained that the state government did not have any inkling about the happenings within the IT major. 'No one could even imagine that such a serious fraud could happen in such a big firm,' he said.

Hyderabad-headquartered Satyam, India's fourth largest IT firm, is facing controversy after its founder-chairman B. Ramalinga Raju admitted to financial irregularities worth Rs.70 billion (Rs.7,0000 crore) over the years and stepped down.

Rajasekhar Reddy said as soon as he was informed of the crime, he ordered the Criminal Investigation department (CID) of the state police to probe the matter and urged the central government to take appropriate measures.

He said the main concern of his government was to protect the jobs of 53,000 employees of the company.

The state government is also drawing flak over several public projects allotted to Maytas Infrastructure, a company promoted by Ramalinga Raju's son.

'The decision (to allot the projects) was taken after due procedure and international bidding. The company had assured good returns for the state government,' Rajasekhar Reddy maintained.

On the demand to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh and carve out the state of Telangana, Rajasekhar Reddy said he held discussions with senior Congress leaders Pranab Mukherjee, Ahmed Patel and M. Veerappa Moily, and that the party would take an appropriate policy decision.

For the upcoming Lok Sabha and Andhra Pradesh assembly elections, Reddy said: 'The Congress would contest all alone. A grand alliance is not going to work in Andhra pradesh.'