The biggest bus strike in Mumbai continues in its fifth day too. On its fifth day that is on Saturday, the bus strike deployed nearly 2,000 school buses and private buses Saturday morning.
Anil Garg, the association’s president earlier declared by stating “A total of 2,000 private and school buses will be plying on Mumbai roads owing to the BEST strike. All passengers travelling a distance up to 10 km will be charged Rs 20 and above as per BEST rate. People with disability and senior citizens will be allowed to use the service for free. The service is provided by the School Bus Owners Association and the Mumbai Bus Malak Sanghathan”
Earlier on Friday, 25 lakh Mumbaiites continued their strike on its fourth day too. The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) buses stayed off the roads on Friday. Even after a four hour long meeting the management struggles to end the staff strike and was failed on Thursday.
Shashank Rao, president of BEST Workers’ Unions said “The ruling party and BEST administration are responsible for the delay in ending the strike. The administration has so far not given us any counter-proposal in response to our demands.”
The move to deployed nearly 2,000 school buses and private buses Saturday morning came after the Transport Commissioner’s office come up to the suggestion to make available buses to ease the commuters’ anguishes. Every single of the two connotations has pressed 1000 buses into facility in the city and suburbs.
Anil Garg also added by saying, “We expect more passenger load as the day progresses. We are only plying short distances of 10 km. While the private luxury buses will stick to the main roads, school buses will enter the small lanes to reach people from housing colonies. The bus owners will not be taking the earnings from this service since this is a public cause. The drivers are allowed to keep the earnings”.
About 32,000 BEST staffs are on an indeterminate strike demanding for the raisement in their salaries, combining the BEST budget with the BMC budget, consultations on new wage settlement, recommencement of earlier policy of giving arrangements on empathetic grounds and bonuses on same level with those given to BMC workers. About 25 lakh Mumbaikars use the facility.
On Saturday morning from 7 am, the substitute bus service started early in the morning. In the meantime, it is a second Saturday where mostly government offices observe holiday so the buses were running not as much of than full capacity.
