Protestors forcefully stop Best-owned bus on road, garland driver

Mumbai: After a few days of peaceful protests at Azad Maidan, some of the BEST drivers working for wet lease operators are resorting to forceful stopping of BEST-owned buses from operating.

The state government, meanwhile, has promised that the BEST strike will end, and services will resume fully in the next 48 hours.

On Monday, a few wet lease drivers identified a BEST bus at Marol, and allegedly in a threatening manner, asked the bus driver to either stop the bus or wear a garland of flowers.

Sources in BEST said the striking workers forcibly opened the door and tried to put a garland around the driver’s neck.

“These drivers on wet lease were only congratulating these drivers for taking out the buses on road. But we are totally against them taking the law in their hands,” said Vikas Kharmale, a wet lease driver who is a part of the contingent leading the All BEST Wet lease Bus Drivers, which has written a letter to CM Eknath Shinde asking for their demands to be met.

“Out of the total 5,000 odd drivers who are on strike, only a handful did this. We do not intend to cause such a kind of trouble to people,” added Kharmale.

There was another incident in Malwani on Saturday after which the BEST authorities asked the police to intervene and provide security for the bus drivers.

Since August 1, when the strike first took shape on a smaller scale, they were protesting at Azad Maidan. On August 5, HT reported about Pragya Khajurkar, an RTI activist, whose spouse Raghunath Khajurkar, who works as a driver for wet lease operator of BEST, started this strike.

For the first five days, the drivers used to arrive at Azad Maidan and protest peacefully till the evening. However, wet lease drivers said that some of them have now lost their patience.

“The number of wet lease buses that were off the roads has come down to 796 from 1,100 or so last week. This is because few of the drivers did go back to work. With the government’s intervention, we expect things to be resolved soon,” said a BEST official.

On August 7, Mangalprabhat Lodha, guardian minister (Mumbai Suburban District) in a press conference assured that BEST services are expected to be fully restored within the next 24 to 48 hours.

Sources in the transport department said the government will address the issues of the contractual employees and hold further discussions with the owners of the rented buses.

“Currently, out of the total 3,052 buses, 1,381 are owned by BEST while 1,671 are operated on a rental basis. To provide uninterrupted transportation services, the government has taken measures to start 2,651 buses to serve the public, with the support of MSRTC, who are providing 180 buses, and more than 200 school buses being made available,” said Lodha.

“The authorities are also actively working to overcome the shortage of 400 buses and recruit necessary drivers to meet the demands,” added Lodha.

The strike is affecting around eight to 10 lakh people every day and according to the sources, they are suffering revenue losses of ₹50-75 lakh each day. Many contract workers of the BEST had gathered in front of the Wadala depot at 3pm on Monday, along with members of the Amchi Mumbai Amchi BEST.

“Everyone only sees the issues caused to citizens,” said Ujjwala Mhatre, member of the Amchi Mumbai Amchi BEST. “But what about the cause of the problems? What about the problems of the workers?”

The main complaint of the protestors has to do with the disparity between permanent workers and contractor workers of BEST; the former gets a starting salary of ₹33,000 per month and the latter starts at ₹16,200 per month, with no promise of increment.

The other complaint of the drivers is that they have to pay for bus tickets, unlike the concessions given to permanent workers. The threat of fines if the buses are not out on the road makes the contractors force the drivers out on the road, despite shoddy maintenance.

They also complain of long wait times, which are not counted as a part of their work hours and so their workdays often extend to 12 hours and over.