BBMP bed scam: Suspended health workers share horrifying, traumatising episode of Tejasvi Surya's raid
War room health workers who were suspended after Tejasvi Surya's 'expose' into alleged bed blocking scam say that they were busy attending calls that day and were not suspended earlier on any charges. The officials who fear resurfacing of similar episodes have stayed away from work despite BBMP ordering reinstatement.
FollowIn the latest development to the alleged BBMP bed blocking scam, 2 out of 16 health workers who were suspended and reinstated say they did not go back fearing resurfacing of such cases and unwanted labeling as 'elements'.
Two of the officials who have stayed away from rejoining spoke to Asianet Newsable and shared the harrowing experience they have had to deal with post Surya's raid.
"You must have read and seen that the MP was telling that he only took the names given by officials and those were suspended on such charges but the fact is that we were just in the war room attending calls after calls. We had no clue what was happening. By the end of the day, we returned humiliated for helping people in distress and doing our duty. Had we known that our names would be dragged into this controversy for no fault of ours, we would have never joined BBMP war room," Kabir (name changed) said as his voice choked.
Kabir after his graduation wanted to earn to support his family and this was his second job and had joined the war room just a week before the raid happened, which in turn left a deep scar in his mind.
Kabir is the only earning member of the family and says he stepped out risking his life only to help BBMP and the public and never expected to go through such unfortunate moments.
Similarly, Kamar who after his Pre University decided to help his elder brother, the sole breadwinner of the family, by sharing the financial burden, joined BBMP on a contract for Rs 13,500 monthly salary. He said there is no one to fight on behalf of the poor and downtrodden.
"Our family members are pained due to this incident. I will take a call on reinstatement in a day or two. At present, I'm still in shock from that episode. Except one person who was in the bed allocation wing, all others were in the helpline section and have no link to any bed allocation. Still our names were dragged and defamed," said Kamar.
What happened on that day?
On May 4, Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya and three BJP MLAs barged into BBMP South Zone war room and allegedly exposed a bed blocking scam. The MP just read names from particular community, meanwhile MLA Ravi Subramanya asked the Nodal Officer Tulasi Maddieni whether these people were recruited for Madarsa or Civic body. Another MLA Satish Reddy reportedly asked whether it was for Hajj Bhavan.
The BBMP later suspended 16 officials and also about five people were arrested in this connection and the police so far have found no link with the suspended officials.
Soon, Twitter raised a red flag accusing the MP of making this a communal issue and opposition also termed the same.
Later, the MP reportedly went to the war room and allegedly apologized. Meanwhile BBMP reinstated 16 officials out of which 11 reported back to work and said they will also cooperate with CCB which is probing the allegation.
