Mumbai: The worrisome strike by the workers of BEST (Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport), caused the “City of Dreams” a hurtful deadlock for more than three days as buses remained non-functional during the protest. The strike was in retaliation to the non-fulfillment of certain demands by the authorities and was formally concluded on Sunday night, following a meeting attended by the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Eknath Shinde, Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik, and representatives of the BEST Sanyukt Kamgar Kruti Samiti.
The few buses that were serving citizens were forced to retreat to depots after facing vandalism, which included the pelting of stones and the breaking of glass. The meeting that led to the end of the strike was held at the Sahyadri Guest House, where authorities agreed to accept certain demands from the workers.
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The proposed demands were: merging the BEST budget into the BMC to ensure financial stability and prevent service cuts; implementing the 7th Pay Commission recommendations for the 2016–2026 period; abolishing wet-leasing by phasing out contractual bus arrangements and fully absorbing these workers into the permanent BEST workforce; increasing the fleet size to 6,000 undertaking-owned buses to reduce heavy reliance on private operators; clearing pending legal dues and financial settlements for retired employees; filling thousands of vacant positions within the transport and electricity departments while promoting eligible staff; and halting all Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and privatization initiatives across the BEST undertaking.
Some of these demands were reportedly accepted with immediate effect, while others will be addressed within 15 days. Joint Action Committee leader and MLA Sachin Ahir announced the decision to call off the strike following more than an hour of discussions with the state government. Speaking after the meeting, Ahir said, “The state government held positive discussions with us. On behalf of the Action Committee, we are withdrawing the strike. The first buses will begin operating shortly.” The decisions also include the clearance of pending handouts to workers for the current year, and the government agreed to provide an interim monthly wage hike of Rs 3,000 to permanent employees and Rs 2,000 to workers employed by wet-lease operators until a new wage agreement is finalized. Shinde also assured that 5,000 new buses will be serving on Mumbai’s roads in the next three years, and financial talks are underway for the proposal titled “Kayapalat” (Transformation). Consequently, with a collective sigh of relief, buses were seen back on the roads immediately following the meeting on Sunday night.