MH-BEST-STRIKE

The BEST bus strike in Mumbai

entered its sixth day Sunday with no agreement in sight

between agitating workers and the management of the civic-run

transport undertaking.

Over 32,000 employees of the Brihanmumbai Electric

Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) are on strike since

Tuesday and 3200-odd buses in its fleet are off the roads.

Only four drivers out of the 2,610 on the rolls, and

none of the 2,764 conductors, were present Sunday which meant

that not a single bus plied, an official said.

A meeting between a state government committee,

comprising the chief secretary, Brihanmumbai Municipal

Corporation commissioner, BEST general manager and transport

and urban development secretaries, and union functionaries

Saturday had failed to break the impasse.

The meeting was held on the directions of the Bombay

High Court.

Striking workers have been demanding the merger of the

BMC and BEST budgets as well as higher salaries among other

issues.

Meanwhile, Vidyadhar Date, convener of Amchi Mumbai

Amchi BEST, a citizens' forum for public transport, blamed the

BMC and the undertaking for the stir.

He alleged that BMC and BEST had failed to invest in

the city's public transport mechanism and had been encouraging

an energy-guzzling car-centric system for the metropolis.

He said these moves had led to debilitating traffic

congestion, worsening air pollution and life-risking

overcrowding on the suburban rail network.

The BMC has been focused on the coastal road instead

of bus priority lanes, private contractors instead of

commuters, BESTs so-called "inefficiencies" instead of the

citys worsening pollution and congestion, and convenience of

private motorists instead of safe, affordable and sustainable

public transport, he claimed.

He alleged the BEST management looked at its bus

service as an essential one under the Essential Services

Maintenance Act only when it came to strikes, but on other

occasions, like when it wanted to reduce fleet size, manpower,

routes and increase privatisation, it saw the system as a "non

essential" one.