MUMBAI: Despite appeals from the Maharashtra transport minister and the invocation of the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act (MESMA), employees of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking continued their indefinite strike for the second consecutive day on Saturday.
Uday Ambonkar, convenor of the BEST Sanyukt Kamgar Kruti Samiti, said, “In the absence of any concrete decision, we have decided to continue our agitation”.
With BEST bus services largely suspended, commuters were compelled to depend on overcrowded local trains and Metro services, as well as taxis, autorickshaws, and app-based cab services to travel across the city, news agency PTI reported.
The strike has severely disrupted the daily commutes of lakhs of people in the financial capital, with office-goers, students, senior citizens, and patients facing hardships due to the near-complete halt in bus services.
BEST officials said only 48 of the 2,766 buses were operational on Friday, and several buses had to be sent back to depots following incidents of stone-pelting and obstruction by striking workers. According to the officials, 26 cases of stone-pelting, threats, tyre deflation, and damage to bus mirrors were reported on the first day of the strike.
The BEST Sanyukt Kamgar Kruti Samiti, representing several employee unions, called the strike to press for its long-pending demands. The demands include merging BEST’s budget with that of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and implementing the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations for the 2016–2026 period.
The union further demands the settlement of legal dues owed to retired employees, the abolition of contractual systems in the transport and electricity departments, and the absorption of wet-lease bus workers into BEST.
On Friday, Maharashtra transport minister Pratap Sarnaik held a joint meeting with leaders of the action committee, urban development department officials, and the BEST administration on the directions of deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, but the talks failed to yield a resolution, PTI reported.
BEST, Mumbai’s second-largest public transport provider after the suburban railway network, carries about 25 lakh passengers daily through its fleet of 2,766 buses. Most of the buses are operated on a wet-lease basis from private operators. The civic undertaking also supplies electricity to over 10 lakh consumers in the city.
(With agency inputs)
