Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) walked out of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking’s committee meeting on Friday to protest the non-payment of gratuity to retired employees.
It was newly elected chairman Ashish Chemburkar’s first committee meeting in his current term. He had earlier chaired the committee for three terms.
Sunil Ganacharya, BJP corporator and BEST committee member, said, “Around four thousand workers continue to wait for their gratuity. Weddings and higher education of their children have been put on hold as a result. If this continues, the day is not far when the situation of the BEST workers situation will be no different from farmers in the State.”
According to BJP corporators, BEST owes its workers ₹265 crore, which has accumulated over two and a half years of non-payment of gratuity. “I had raised this issue nearly 20 days ago, but no action has been taken yet. About 600 more employees are scheduled to retire and the administration doesn’t seem to have any plans to solve this issue,” said Mr Ganacharya.
The corporators warned the administration that it may have to pay a lot more than the gratuity amount. “Some of the workers have gone to court on this issue. If the court decides to rule in their favour, the administration will have to pay 10% more not only to the employees who have gone to court but also to everyone,” said Anil Kokil, former committee chariman and Shiv Sena corporator.
BJP corporators demanded an adjournment, which was put to a vote. However, the other committee members, including members of the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, voted in favour of the meeting to continue. The BJP members then staged a walkout.
