In an embarrassing moment for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government in Karnataka, the party’s MP from South Bangalore Tejasvi Surya on Tuesday (May 4) charged the officials of BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) with being involved in a scam over the allotment of beds in hospitals. He alleged that huge amount of money is being demanded as bribe from the relatives of the corona virus patients so that they can get beds. In some cases, as high as Rs. 40,000 is being demanded for a bed and the rate for ICU is even higher. He said that 4,065 beds have been blocked by racketeers who are busy minting money when a large number of people are dying due to lack of treatment. This is simply murder.
The MP said that the hospitals are wrongly showing that there is shortage of beds as a big scam is involved in it. He accused the BBMP officials of being in nexus with some private hospitals and nursing homes and are using fake names to block the beds.
Tejasvi, who is the national president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, said that in one case beds were booked in 12 hospitals in the name of one asymptomatic patient.
The allegations were levelled at a Press conference at a time when the positivity rate in Bangalore had risen to 40 per cent. After Mumbai and Delhi, Bangalore has witnessed a sharp surge in cases of corona virus in the recent days. Karnataka witnessed 44,631 new cases of COVID-19 and 288 deaths in the last 24 hours.
The chief minister B S Yediyurappa assured that his government would take strict action against the scamsters and that no one would be spared.
Two persons have now been arrested in this regard.
