Mumbai BEST strike disrupts city commute as talks remain inconclusive | WATCH

Mumbai: The ongoing strike by employees of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking continued into its second day on Saturday, severely disrupting daily life across the city despite government appeals and the invocation of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (MESMA).

Passengers across Mumbai were forced to depend heavily on suburban trains, Metro services, taxis, autorickshaws and app-based cabs, many of which reported overcrowding during peak hours. Office-goers, students, senior citizens and patients faced significant delays and inconvenience as bus services remained largely suspended.

Uday Ambonkar, convenor of the BEST Sanyukt Kamgar Kruti Samiti, said late on Friday that the agitation would continue in the absence of any concrete resolution to their demands.

The BEST undertaking, Mumbai’s second-largest public transport provider after the suburban rail network, operates around 2,766 buses and serves nearly 25 lakh passengers daily. It also supplies electricity to over 10 lakh consumers in the island city.

Who called the strike and why?

The strike has been called by a section of employee unions under the joint action committee to press for long-pending demands, including merger of BEST’s budget with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations for the 2016–2026 period, clearance of dues of retired staff, abolition of contractual employment practices, and absorption of wet-lease bus workers into the undertaking.

Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik held discussions with union representatives and officials on Friday following directions from Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, but the meeting ended without any breakthrough.

Authorities have warned that the strike violates an ad-interim order of an industrial court restraining industrial action and the provisions of MESMA, which bars disruption of essential services.

While some unions, including the Shramik Utkarsh Sabha and BEST Kamgar Union, have distanced themselves from the protest, the agitation has continued to affect operations. On Friday, only 48 of BEST’s 2,766 buses were in service. Several vehicles were reportedly forced to return to depots following incidents of obstruction, including stone-pelting and damage such as broken mirrors and deflated tyres. According to BEST officials, at least 26 such incidents were reported on the first day of the strike.

(PTI)