Despite government intervention and the invocation of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (MESMA), employees of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) continued their strike on Saturday, leaving lakhs of commuters to deal with severe disruptions across Mumbai.
With BEST buses largely off the roads, passengers were forced to depend on overcrowded suburban trains, Metro services, taxis, autorickshaws and app-based cabs to reach workplaces, schools, hospitals and other destinations.
“In the absence of any concrete decision, we have decided to continue our agitation,” Uday Ambonkar, convenor of the BEST Sanyukt Kamgar Kruti Samiti, the joint action committee of unions, told PTI late on Friday night.
The strike has affected Mumbai’s daily life, with office-goers, students, senior citizens and patients facing difficulties due to the near-total suspension of bus operations.
BEST, Mumbai’s second-largest public transport provider after the suburban railway network, carries around 25 lakh passengers daily through its fleet of 2,766 buses. A majority of these buses operate under a wet-lease model through private operators. The undertaking also supplies electricity to more than 10 lakh consumers in the island city.
The employees’ unions have launched the agitation over several long-pending demands, including the merger of BEST’s budget with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), implementation of Seventh Pay Commission recommendations for 2016-2026, clearance of retired employees’ dues, ending contractual arrangements in transport and electricity services, and absorption of wet-lease bus workers into BEST.
Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik held talks with union leaders, Urban Development Department officials and BEST administration representatives on Friday following directions from Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. However, the meeting ended without a resolution.
The strike began despite an interim order from an industrial court restraining employees from going ahead with the protest and the state government invoking MESMA, which prohibits disruption of essential services.
Some employee groups, including the Shramik Utkarsh Sabha and BEST Kamgar Union, have distanced themselves from the agitation.
On the first day of the strike, only 48 of BEST’s 2,766 buses operated. Several buses were forced to return to depots following alleged incidents of stone-pelting and obstruction by striking workers.
BEST officials said 26 incidents involving stone-pelting, threats, tyre deflation and damage to bus mirrors were reported on Friday.
(With inputs from PTI)
