Mukesh says CMD is final authority

Mumbai: The Reliance row over 'ownership issues in the private domain' now firmly inj the public domain, deepened with the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd, Mukesh Ambani, telling his employees who was the boss at Reliance.

In an e-mailed statement sent to over 80,000 employees of the Reliance group, he asserted: "Our founder chairman Dhirubhai Ambani had taken all necessary steps to separate ownership from management and has settled all of them within his lifetime. There is no ambiguity in his legacy that the chairman-and-managing director is the final authority on all matters concerning Reliance."

Mukesh Ambani's note to his employees referred to media stories that "cast aspersions on the legacy of our founder chairman as well as on the on the professional management of our company."

"First of all, there is no question of any effect on the integrity of Reliance," it said.

The professional resource base of Reliance is one of the strongest in the world, both in terms of diversity of disciplines as well as depth in each discipline, said the statement.

Meanwhile, Anil Ambani's widely expected statement about the 'ownership issues,' did not materialise yesterday.