Bengaluru, May 9: The 17 Muslim BBMP war room staffers that were suspended from their jobs and branded as “terrorists” after a communally motivated “raid” by Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya's team earlier this week, are expected to get their jobs back from May 10.
On May 4, the MP along with MLAs Sathish Reddy, Ravi Subramanya and Uday Garudachar stormed the war room and made allegations of a bed-blocking scam during which he read out the names of only Muslim staff and questioned their appointment.
The 17 were part of the 212 staffers outsourced by Crystal Infosystems and Services. Within minutes after the MP singled them out, they were branded as terrorists and many of them were picked up by the police in the night.
Sources said Crystal Infosystems and Services, the company which had outsourced the employees to the BBMP, met Thulasi Maddineni, the IAS officer who is in charge of the South Zone War room, on Saturday and requested for the reinstatement of the staffers considering that none of them were connected to the bed-blocking facility.
To a question, the officer said they have assured the company that the jobs will be restored. "The agency came and requested us to reinstate the issue. For many of the employees, it is the question of their livelihood. The request was made on Saturday. The staffers will be taken back from Monday," she said.
Shivu Naik, manager of Crystal Infosystems, said he was yet to hear from officials but the move was a good step forward considering none of the staffers provided by the company were working in the bed-blocking section. "It's definitely a welcome move. Our company had given a letter to BBMP on behalf of the employees as the job was important to them in the pandemic. I will meet the officials tomorrow," he said.
A day after Tejasvi Surya's allegations, the war room had seen attrition as many employees refused to work citing the leakage of their personal phone numbers. Surya visited them once again and apologised for the leak of numbers. His office has clarified that the MP didn't apologise for what happened to the Muslim staffers as reported by some media.
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