A committee meeting of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) to discuss its budget had to be adjourned on Wednesday after members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a walkout and Congress members boycotted the meeting. The key issue was the non-payment of bonus to BEST employees, which was promised by the general manager Surendrakumar Bagde in the last meeting before Deepavali.
‘Commit date’
Senior committee member and BJP corporator Sunil Ganacharya said, “It has been nearly 10 days since the general manager made the promise. We are not asking for the bonus right now, but at least he must commit a date,” he said.
Mr. Bagde said that he required eight to 10 days to come up with a date. “How can he make a promise without calculating where the funds are going to come from,” Mr. Ganacharya said.
Senior committee member and Congress corporator, Ravi Raja said, “We plan to boycott all committee meetings around the budget, because we feel it is pointless. For the past two years, we have been sending deficit budgets to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), and they have sent it back without passing it.” According to the rules of the Mumbai Metropolitan Act, BEST needs to submit a budget with at least a surplus of ₹1 lakh. “This year will be the same, so what’s the point of the discussion,” Mr. Raja said.
The committee will reconvene tomorrow and Mr. Ganacharya said that they will raise the issue about the bonus again.
