BEST strike cripples Mumbai bus services for second day; special buses arranged for NEET candidates

Zero buses were on the roads between 10 am to 6 pm. Pic/Satej Shinde

Mumbai bus services remained crippled second day in a row on Saturday. The indefinite strike called by the BEST Sanyukt Kamgar Kruti Samiti stretched to Saturday, with only four buses - all wet-leased, none self-owned (by the undertaking) - operating till 10 am against a normal daily deployment of 2,767 buses. After that, there was zero turnout of buses till 4 pm. While the undertaking slapped notices on striking employees and wet lease contractors, they said they were arranging additional 160 buses, 60 of them just for NEET exam centres, across Mumbai for Sunday.

BEST officials said, "The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation has been asked to arrange 100 additional buses. A further 60 buses have been arranged for NEET exam centers across the city's 63 exam venues, operating in two shifts (9am-1pm and 5pm-7pm)."

The strike, led by an umbrella body of 12 unions, began at midnight on Thursday. The demands? Including merger of BEST's budget with that of the BMC, a one-time settlement of pending legal dues of retired employees, and implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission. Striking union leader Uday Ambonkar said, "The minutes of meeting with Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik have been diluted and real issues by-passed. We are appealing to the CM and Deputy CM to get the issue resolved tonight before the NEET exam happens on Sunday."