Congress MLA Sowmya Reddy alleged that she was kept out of the new home delivery helpline initiative which was launched by Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya in her constituency.
As government agencies and volunteers in Bengaluru struggle to provide food for the needy, including migrant workers, stranded in the lockdown, allegations of political favouritism have been made against some BJP functionaries. The BJP is in power both in the state and local city civic body. Jayanagar MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) Sowmya Reddy took to Twitter to highlight the incident in a series of tweets. She suggested that despite being a duly elected representative of the city, she was kept out of the government initiative with regards to a home delivery helpline which was launched by Bengaluru South MP (Member of Parliament) Tejasvi Surya and is run by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike. She also alleged that while she had been making requests for food kits from the state government’s labour department, she has not got any response, while Aravind Limbavali, the MLA from Mahadevpura, who is from the BJP, had received 16,000 such kits. @PMOIndia, @narendramodi sir ,@CMofKarnataka, is this a BJP or a BBMP initiative? It says delivery in Jayanagar too but the MLA was not informed not invited for this govt initiative. I met the @BBMPCOMM & @BBMP_MAYOR a few days ago why didn’t you tell me about this? @DCPSouthBCP pic.twitter.com/er29biKtF5 — Sowmya Reddy (@Sowmyareddyr) April 12, 2020 Speaking with TNM, Sowmya said,”We are facing multiple issues. First is with the access to information. Second is that they are not provisioning us with relief material. Initially I was getting 5,000 food packets daily from the BBMP, now they are saying that they will reduce it to 100. Even for dry ration, we are only getting 25 ration kits.” She added, “Unless there is coordination now there is overlapping of relief efforts. And if this is not fixed we will have a similar danger from the infection as we will face of hunger.” At present, from the government agencies, the BBMP has been providing prepared food, while the Labour Department is supplying ration kits. Speaking about this, a volunteer working with the government in the Dasoha system, acknowledged the issue of political tinkering. “On top, from all the departments, work is being carried with all good intentions and we are able to do really good given the situation. But when it comes to execution, these things are failing because of politicisation and favouritism,” she adds. Incidentally, Limbavali was recently accused by labour unions for falsely claiming credit for these food kits which have been funded by the Karnataka Building and Construction Workers Welfare Board. This after photos of him along with Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were found pasted on the food packets. Read: Row over BJP MLA's photo on food packets, unions say bought with workers’ fund Shivajinagar MLA Rizwan Arshad echoed the comments made by Sowmya Reddy. He told TNM, "It is true that the government is working in a partisan manner and they are not taking care of areas ruled by opposition MLAs and corporators. I don't think this is the right time to do politics. We have to take everyone into confidence in our fight against the pandemic." As things stand, the Dasoha system, maintained by the state government, shows that the number of requests for food packets that have been processed is around 2.5 lakh short of those requested. Reacting to this, Chickpet corporator Mujahid Pasha (of the SPDI) slammed the way decisions are being made. He said, “This is the way things have been happening. When the BJP is in power, for all developmental and welfare projects, they get it done in their constituencies and the same is for Congress. While this can be accepted when it comes to developmental projects, this can’t go on in a crisis like this. Officers should sanction funds and aid depending on the requirement and not due to pressure from their political bosses. They should do it on a need per basis.” He added, “In my ward, on the first day I got 4,000 1-litre milk packets and then the next day I got only 3,500 500-ml packets. Later, I found the number of packets were reduced as per an order from the Chief Minister, but why did they reduce the number of packets? So I had to force the Joint Commissioner to visit my ward and see it for himself. For the last few days, I am getting the required number of packets again and in the meantime, I had to arrange the additional packets myself. (With inputs from Prajwal Bhat)
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