BJP MP Tejasvi Surya has uncovered a ‘Bribe for Bed’ scam by the Bruhath Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) in Bengaluru, where some corrupt officials in BBMP in conjunction with some Arogya Mitras in hospitals and outside agents sell hospital beds to Covid patients in exchange of bribes.

He spoke in a press release about a shocking discovery of the BBMP bed booking system for Covid patients in Bengaluru. He said that for the past one month people in Bangaluru are desperate to get one hospital bed for saving their near and dear ones.

Tejasvi Surya was accompanied in the press conference with the Bommanahalli MLA, Satish Reddy, Basavanagudi MLA Ravi Subramanya and Chickpet MLA Uday Garudachar. Tejasvi tweeted a video of the scam expose on his twitter account.

He stated that surprisingly, each day the BBMP bed booking software shows that there is no bed available in the entire city. He pointed out that everyday, there are many patients who are getting discharged and some of them unfortunately get discharged due to deaths, yet the BBMP website always shows, be it day or night, that there is no bed available for admission.

Tejasvi disclosed that there is a nexus between some BBMP officers with some Arogya Mitras in hospitals and certain agents outside, who have made this “Bribe For Bed Scam”.

Tejasvi Surya narrates the modus operandi of this scam, where beds reserved for severe Covid patients are blocked in the name of asymptomatic patients. People who are in home isolation, who are not even aware, beds are blocked in their names and Covid registration details. Then certain outside agents speak to the people in-charge in the BBMP war rooms and these beds are re-allotted to people who are waiting outside on payment of bribes. Tejasvi stressed that, this blocking of beds in the name of asymptomatic patients and re-allotting it to some other patients for pecuniary or other benefits is the most disgusting and inhumane behaviour during a pandemic.

He further said that the data analysed in the last 7-8 days, more than 4065 cases where beds that have been booked by the BBMP has got an auto-on-block. That is a bed is booked for a certain patient who is asymptomatic. The bed is reserved in his name for 12 hours. Every patient gets 12 hours to get admitted, this inexplicable as anyone who is in emergent need of hospitalisation, would not wait for 12 hours to get admitted.

Once the bed is allotted, the BBMP officials try to sell the bed with the help of the outside agents within this 12 hours limit. When they cannot do that, the bed becomes automatically unblocked. In the last ten days, there are 4000 plus instances where scarcely available beds were made available to persons who did not need a bed.

There are also instances where a single person has been allotted beds in multiple hospitals. Tejasvi Surya has also provided audio recordings of these facts. In one case, on the same day, a person was allotted bed in three different hospitals.

Tejasvi said that this malpractice happens without an iota of guilt when there are people who are dying because of non-availability of hospital beds and hospital treatment.

Tejasvi Surya also exposed that in certain big hospitals, admissions take place only in the wee hours of the night. Curiously, not a single allotment or admission at any time during the day. Admissions take place at 12 in the night, 2 am in the morning, suddenly 20 beds are opened together for admission. At 2.30 am 10 beds are made available, at 2:30:31 seconds all are admitted. Tejasvi questions were the patients waiting besides ventilator beds and jumped in just 30 seconds on to the bed? How can the admission process be completed in 30 seconds for 10 people? Tejasvi said that there were hundreds of such cases found in his inquiry.

Tejasvi said that the Karnataka CM BS Yedyurappa took serious note of this scam and called him and other MLAs for a special meeting. The CM has said that all those people involved in the despicable “Bribe For Bed Scam” would be taken to task and prosecuted.

Tejasvi said that he takes his responsibility as a MP of Bangaluru very seriously for the faith reposed in him by the public and would never fail to serve the people sincerely, even if it means to expose and rectify corruption in their own administration.

Tejasvi said that if he is not able to perform his duties in this national emergency, he would lose the moral authority to occupy his official position. Tejasvi said, that he would ensure that people behind this scam are arrested and made an example so that no one else dares to indulge in such abominable corrupt practices.

He insisted that public emergency cannot be exploited for private gain. He insisted this is not a simple case of petty corruption, but murder and needs to be set right. He thanked the Chief Minister for being very sensitive to the problem and addressing it immediately on a war footing.

IS IT A CASE OF ‘BED JIHAD’ SCAM?

Interestingly, one of the videos viral in the social media platform shows Tejasvi Surya questioning the BBMP officials about the list of names of 17 people appointed by the corporation to process the request for beds and allotting beds at hospitals, they were all Muslims. Tejasvi read out the names and questioned who they were, and on what basis were they appointed? MLA Ravi Subramanya accompanying Tejasvi Surya even asked the BBMP official lady, is this a corporation employee list or list of Madrassa employees?

Notably, the in-charge of BBMP Covid War Room for bed allotment is reportedly one Dr. Rehan Khan, who has questionably appointed 16 other Muslims under him who are responsible to allot beds for Covid patients in Bengaluru. Moreover, the said reporting doctor appointed was BDS doctor and not MBBS doctor. BDS doctors are not qualified of dealing with Covid patients, then how was a BDS doctor appointed by the BBMP?

The names cited by Tejasvi are: Mansoor Ali, Tahir Ali Khan, Sadiq Pasha, Mohammad Zayed, Alsai Saheer, Umer Khan, Salman Urif, Zameer Pasha, Zaibullah Khan, Sayed Hasnain, Sayed Shahid, Sayed Shahbaz, MD Yunus, Sayed Mohin Shah, Sayed Muyesh Shah and Al Sahil.

In all probability, although Tejasvi did not spell it out this scam seems to be case of ‘Bed Jihad’, by unscrupulously making money by selling beds and letting many Hindus die for want of hospital treatment. The jihadis get triple benefits in one stroke, enrich themselves during public emergency, be instrumental in deaths of many Kafirs and also blame the BJP government headed by BS Yedyurappa for the human tragedy due to their corruption!

TEJASVI FOLLOWED UP THE CASE AND GOT THE BBMP SOFTWARE RECTIFIED TO AVOID CORRUPTION

He contacted IT czar, Nandan Nilekani, immediately and sought his help to revamp BBMP bed allocation software, which was done by tech volunteers of Bengaluru. He also thanked Nandan Nilekani for his timely help for the purpose. The bed booking software was redesigned to make it efficient, transparent and minimise manual intervention.

Tejasvi then followed it up by monitoring the system online, to see if there any improvements in the system after his intervention. He tweeted that, in the afternoon of 4th May, the beds available at BBMP website showed zero, but later around 10.20 pm the same day, it showed an availability of 1504 beds, which showed that the system was improving.

It is heartening and very refreshing to see Tejasvi Surya, who proves time and again by his actions that politicians can really bring in systematic changes and make the system work if they are non-corrupt and dedicated to serve the people who elected them. Kudos to him!

Image sourced from internet.

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