22 January,2019 07:43 AM IST | Mumbai | A Correspondent
File pic
Presenting the figures of the nine-day bus strike, BEST General Manager Surendra Bagde on Monday said that the BEST undertaking was ready with a plan for its revival, and that it would be appropriate to place it before the court-appointed mediator, so that it remained unbiased.
The strike led to the damage of 17 buses in 10 cases of stone throwing injuring one driver and caused major losses. Bagde said the losses were not new to the undertaking, and more so, after the power wing funding to the bus wing stopped. In numerous meetings with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Mayor, it had been estimated that it would require about Rs 10,000 crore to bring the undertaking back on track.
Action plan ready
"We have an action plan but it will be prudent to present it before the Bombay High Court-appointed mediator, and not before the committee, so that no opinions are formed about it and it is discussed in an unbiased manner," Bagde told BEST committee members.
The court had appointed Justice F I Rebello, former chief justice of Allahabad High Court, as the mediator between the trade union and the BEST. In the first committee meeting after the strike on Monday, members lambasted Bagde, saying it was because of his ignorance that the strike had happened, with opposition leader Ravi Raja calling for adjournment of the meeting.
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Former BEST chairman Anil Kokil said that they had been warning the administration and the general manager repeatedly, but no one paid heed and because of all this Mumbaikars had to suffer.
The strike in figures
In the statistics presented by the administration, it was stated that the undertaking had lost revenue of Rs 19.88 crore during the strike. As many as 17 buses were damaged in 10 stone-pelting incidents and this caused a loss of Rs 37,318. After the strike was called off on the afternoon of January 16, the BEST managed to operate 893 buses till the end of the day, earning Rs 26.05 lakh.
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