22nd August 2010.
Respected Yediyurappaji:
Sub:
Horrifying and Inhuman conditions at the Beggars Colony,
Magadi Road, Bengaluru
NEVER IN THE DARKEST DAYS OF NAZI GERMANY DID THE
WORLD EXPERIENCE MORE HORRIFYING CONDITIONS
AT THE DEATH CAMPS THAN WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN
BANGALORE.
The entire nation and for that matter, the whole world has been horrified by
the happenings at the Beggars Colony, Magadi Road, Bengaluru, which is a
matter of deep distress and shame yet totally unpardonable. This is not an
isolated instance because every single Department of the State Government
is functioning in an unprofessional, inefficient and corrupt manner – the
Officers and Staff are only interested in siphoning out public funds and this
is very representative of the general state of affairs. Nobody is impressed
by the so-called corrective action which the State Government is supposed
to have undertaken – it is an absolute joke, an eye-wash and nothing short
of musical chairs where the entire bunch of people responsible have been
shifted from one position to the other. A responsible Journalist who has
been covering this institution states that 69 persons have died within
the last two weeks alone and that the bodies have been quietly cremated
under government orders. Even after the Press exposed the fact that
the inmates are dying like flies due to a serious infection, your Dear and
Esteemed Home Minister who shoots his mouth off on every occasion
repeatedly tried to cover up this scandal by stating that the
Contd…2
TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL INDIA
(Karnataka Chapter)
:2:
deaths were due to natural causes despite overwhelming evidence to the
contrary. This man is a Medical Doctor and the culpability for making false
statements in official quarters becomes all the more serious, particularly
when he has made a habit of it and when it seriously embarrasses the State
Government. Left to your Home Minister, if all the inmates are starved
and confined to sub-human conditions, they will just drop dead and
Mr. Acharya can tell us that it was due to natural causes, though, the
whole world knows that they had not died but that they were KILLED
because of State callousness. There are duties cast on the Government
all of which have been breached and human rights infringements of the
very worst form have taken place in this case. The very least that should
have been done is that every one of the individuals responsible should have
been dismissed and put on trial if the State Government is honest about its
constitutional obligations. By shifting the guilty persons, starting with the
Minister to another position, it is tantamount to condoning their offences
covering up for them and what is really serious is that they are allowed to
continue with the killings elsewhere.
The Press has already exposed the stinking corruption that prevails at this
institution – over Rs.38.00 Crores have been siphoned out under the guise
of providing food to the inmates. Instead of realizing that the poorest of the
poor require special consideration, they are served food that one would not
place before pigs. There are limits to corruption and human greed but these
have been crossed and every single avenue stinks right up to the fact that
these poor human beings cannot bathe even twice a month. The sanitary
conditions inside that place are worse than a municipal sewer and all of this
Contd…3
TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL INDIA
(Karnataka Chapter)
:3:
because 90% of the money that is sanctioned is misappropriated. Is there no
obligation on the part of your Minister, your Secretary and the Staff of the
Social Welfare Department to monitor, check and control – the truth is that
nobody is interested in their honest duty except in misappropriating money.
The general view that emerges is that the situation in the State is so far
gone that an institution which was supposed to be a Rehabilitation Centre
for the poorest of the poor and which is funded through the BBMP which
collects massive amounts of money under a Beggars Cess is in the year
2010 presenting conditions that are so appalling that they are far worse
than the Nazi Camps set up in Germany during the Second World War.
IT SHOULD BE RENAMED AS A DEATH CHAMBER. The root
cause of this state of affairs is the all pervading corruption which the State
Government has allowed to go unchecked – this Department is at-least
a 100% less corrupt than your Horticulture Department where massive
sums of money are ear-marked for Lalbagh and Cubbon Park – all of it
is misappropriated and these two heritage areas are being systematically
devastated and destroyed and are at their worst state in the Century.
I present three specific heads:
(a)
Mr. Acharya’s Home Department rounds up persons periodically
who are not Beggars but happen to be poor and homeless. They
are kept in this institution for a short time, thrown out on the roads
and then brought back later. I have studied this syndrome over the
last one year in specific instances. The Police collect money from
these poor persons in order to release them. They are all small
traders who manage their livelihood with difficulty. One of them is
an old man by the name of Swamy Nayaka who is regularly picked
Contd…4
TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL INDIA
(Karnataka Chapter)
:4:
up every month and the Police release him from the hellish
prospect of being confined to these horror conditions if he pays
Rs.100/-. I can vouch for it because I have paid for him on atleast
six occasions.
illegally confined in order to provide statistics – the more the
human beings who are rounded up, the more the capacity to loot.
Today’s Press has exposed the fact the Contractor alone makes a
profit of Rs.40/- per human being by serving sub-standard food.
The figures are fabricated-food bills are prepared for 2500 persons
when there are hardly half that number there.
Government gone to sleep or is it colluding with the Offenders ?
We are told that Rs.38.8 Crores have been sanctioned to this
institution in the last six months. Where has the money gone-we all
know!
These poor people are illegally rounded up and
Has the State
(b)
I am quoting the specific instance of a poor woman by the name of
Maryamma who comes to Cubbon Park every morning. She is not
a beggar, but she is a homeless person and many of us donate some
money, clothes etc. to her. Some kind shop-keepers also help her
and allow her to sleep outside their shop. She saves up whatever
money she can and by the end of the month she usually has about
Rs.2000/- with her. At this point of time, she is picked up and
forcibly taken to the Beggars Home, kept there for a few days,
divested of her money, clothes etc. and then thrown on the road,
so that, she can start collecting again. This morning she has come
back once-again, deprived of everything that she possessed. Our
understanding of a Rehabilitation Centre is that it is supposed to
provide relief and is not to be an exploitation and torture chamber.
Contd…5
TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL INDIA
(Karnataka Chapter)
:5:
Mr. Acharya will be happy to know that if this is done often
enough, the person will drop dead and he can tell us that
it is due to natural causes (caused by his Government).
(c)
The third case is equally inhuman. A young man, Sadananda by
name who is from Shimoga District came to Bangalore because his
farmer family is too poor to look after him and he is a cripple. He
is a self respecting young man who lives outside a shop in the
majestic area. A kind rickshaw driver brings him to Cubbon Park
every morning where he tries to do a little Yoga. The regular
visitors assist his existence by giving him money and his other
needs, one of whom is myself. The same rickshaw driver takes
him back by 10.00 a.m., he does a little retail business on the foot-
path and keep himself alive. Since, his family is extremely poor,
he tries to put aside some money and manages to save an average
of Rs.1000/- by the end of the month. He used to travel all the way
to his village just to give the money to his destitute parents who are
very poor farmers and returns to Bangalore, despite his polio
condition.
targeting him towards the end of the month, taking him to the place
forcibly, divesting him of whatever money he has saved and he is
then thrown out on the nearest sidewalk. This is the type of so-
called relief that the poor and the infirm human beings are
receiving in this State.
towards the end of July and we have not seen him after that. Mr.
Acharya will probably tell us that he died of natural causes and we
are supposed to believe it.
The Beggars Colony people have been regularly
The last time he was picked up was
Contd…6
TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL INDIA
(Karnataka Chapter)
:6:
For the last 15 years, I have been relentlessly campaigning that Cubbon
Park and Lalbagh should be looked after by a Citizens Committee if
the State Government makes available some funds just as well, because
otherwise, the Citizens of Bangalore will put together the money. Today,
as in the case with the Beggars Colony, hundreds of Crores of Rupees
of public money is being misappropriated by a bunch of inhuman, rotten
public servants and the places are virtually dying. Some years ago, when
I found that the school childrens’ mid-day meal scheme was in the same
situation as in the Beggars Colony, the State Government was requested
to handover the scheme to the Akshaya Patra Organisation run by
ISKCON. Swamiji agreed to this, he refused to accept the disgustingly
substandard grain and materials from the State Government and today,
lakhs of poor children all over the State are receiving the type of food
that could compare in hygiene, quality and taste with a Five Star Hotel.
The only difficulty is that the Government Officers cannot make money
if this is done. Why can’t the entire Management of the Beggars Colony
be handed over to an NGO of repute as suggested by Mr. Dayanand Pai
or to a Committee of Citizens who will monitor the working or even to
committed human beings like the Mother Theresa Nuns who have been
looking after the poorest of the poor and destitute all over the country and
all over the world. Why can’t they be funded by the State and the
Contd…7
TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL INDIA
(Karnataka Chapter)
:7:
Corporation, so that, in Gandhiji’s country, the weakest human beings
may not be subjected to the horrors that we have seen, killed long before
their time and officially proclaimed by the Home Minister of the State as
having died of natural causes.
This is not a plea, it is not a request, it is a demand.
With esteem and regards,
Yours sincerely,
For TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL INDIA,
(KARNATAKA CHAPTER),
(JUSTICE M.F. SALDANHA)
CHAIRMAN.
(B.G. KOSHY)
VICE CHAIRMAN
The Hon’ble Sri. B.S. Yediyurappa,
Chief Minister of Karnataka,
Vidhana Soudha,
BANGALORE-560 001.
Related news: