BENGALURU: Sheer vengeance on the part of BJP leaders over being denied quotas in beds for respective politicians appears to be behind the ‘expose’ of the alleged bed allocation scam, claimed to have been unearthed by Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya and MLA Satish Reddy.
Top officials in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Covid-19 war room did not deny the possibility of illegal practices in bed allocation, which is being probed. But they informed ‘The New Indian Express’ on condition of anonymity, the shocking details leading to the unearthing of the alleged scam and the communal twist it has taken.
This included an incident that acted as a trigger wherein a patient from the majority community did not get a bed, which was instead given to one from the minority community who was in a critical state, reportedly by an operator also belonging to the latter community. Besides, the officials TNIE spoke to have complained about unwanted interference from the politicians in the functioning of the war room by visiting the place and reportedly even insisting on partly running the bed allocation process on the pretext of making it more efficient.
The issue allegedly has roots in the politicians — especially from Bengaluru South and Bommanahalli — approaching the war rooms and their nodal officers, demanding that a quota of 5-10 beds be created every day as part of MP/MLA/minister’s quota (depending on their political position).
They said it was “to help the citizens urgently needing beds in their respective constituencies”, a senior official said.The war room officials were said to be in a fix as the bed portal and allocation system was meant to be made transparent and progressively improved. Technically, it was not feasible as the system has been created for real-time bed data sharing, and a quota introduced into it would make it chaotic. So, the politicians were refused, which did not go down well with them.
Another senior official said, “Last Saturday, MP Surya and his team approached the BBMP saying many people were demanding beds, but were not getting them. He also pointed to flaws in the bed allocation portal and said he wanted to study the system. We agreed to the lapses and shared the information. Some people from Surya’s team approached the south zone war room insisting that they will sit there and work with the bed allocation system. But they were refused. The South zone is politically very strong and if one politician’s team is allowed, others too would follow. It could also not be allowed as the operators are outsourced and trained.”
So, all four politicians — MP Tejasvi Surya, MLAs Uday Garudachar, Satish Reddy and Ravi Subramanya — visited the war room stating that beds were denied and pointed to problems in the system, saying it needed to be improved. The officials said the issue has taken a communal turn due to this — “When Subramanya wanted a bed for a patient he had referred, no bed was available. Coincidentally, one was given to a person belonging to a minority community by the operator who belongs to the same community, which he got to know and could not accept. Also, when he visited the war room, he found many belonging to the same community,” alleged an official.
The officials also pointed out that when Surya and his team visited the war room demanding to be a part of it and were denied, there were 50-55 staffers on duty. His team noted the names of all of them, eliminated most and the names of 16 belonging to the minority community were read out. Their names were listed as they were allegedly working closely with Dr Rehan (who is now facing CCB inquiry), who had refused to create the quota system, the official said.
“We agree there are some problems in the software as it was created last year in a hurry. It is being upgraded on a regular basis. But one cannot claim that the system is entirely wrong and impose your technical experts on the system,” said a senior official linked with the war room.
Ironically, a BJP leader, who was part of the team which visited the war room with Surya, said, “There is a way if you want to help. But Surya, in the process of trying to help rectify the anomalies, has created a problem, especially at this point of time when the government is getting badgered from all quarters. The statements of Surya and his uncle MLA Ravi Subramanya have added more fuel to the fire.” Meanwhile, Surya, through his personal assistant, denied all the contentions.