BENGALURU: The Congress on Monday took up the issue of reuse of beds purchased for Covid patients, claiming that they will not allow the government to use them in hostels or other facilities for the youth. 
KPCC President D K Shivakumar said, “We will not allow beds used by Covid patients to be used in hostels for the youth, as proposed by an officer, and which the government has accepted. This puts young students at risk. We will launch a struggle to ensure that this will not happen.’’ 

During a media interaction at the KPCC office on Monday, he said that since the government had decide to repurpose the beds, parents and students should resist this move. “We will not allow the lives of our youth to be risked, we will start an abhiyan to stop this,” he added. Shivakumar said he had documents on the government’s proposal to purchase about 10,000 beds. He said the government could give away the beds to the chief minister, his cabinet colleagues, MLAs or officers, but his party would not allow them to be used by poor students in hostels. 

Reacting to Industries Minister R Ashoka’s statement that the Congress needs to learn from the JDS, he said that his party would continue to address the concerns of the people. He alleged that the government had completely failed in the management of the Covid pandemic. “There is corruption in the purchase of medical equipment. We need to talk about this issue, it is our responsibility as well,” he added.