Bed scam: BJP MP’s ‘exposé’ is fake, says Congress

Congress leaders call for judicial probe

Terming the problems that have cropped up in bed allocation system in Bengaluru City a ‘BJP bed scam’, Karnataka Congress leaders on Saturday demanded a judicial probe into it. They said that the ‘exposé’ by BJP Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya and party MLAs Satish Reddy, Ravi Subramanya and Uday Garudachar was fake.

Senior Congress MLAs Ramalinga Reddy, Krishna Byre Gowda and Dinesh Gundu Rao alleged that loyalists of the BJP MP and legislators had interfered in the functioning of the bed allocation system of the BBMP COVID-19 war room and diverted beds to asymptomatic patients and denied beds to patients having severe symptoms.

Legislators’ demand

BJP legislators wanted a share of 75% of beds allocated in war rooms. The differences between the BJP legislators and war room officials started when IAS officers stopped party workers from interference in bed allocation. The rift between officials and legislators led to the MP’s demand for the ouster of 17 workers of war room belonging to the minority community, the Congress leaders alleged.

In the presence of BJP MLA Satish Reddy and local police, men had created a ruckus and manhandled the BBMP officials in Bommanahalli. No action has been initiated against any of the people who disrupted the operations of the war room, they alleged. Officials have written to Chief Secretary P. Ravi Kumar about interference of supporters of BJP MLAs in the allocation of ICU beds and ventilators.

Mr. Ramalinga Reddy said BJP had created a fake bed scam in order to hush up the government’s failures in supplying oxygen that led to 24 deaths in Chamarajanagar district hospital.