The strike declared by workers of the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) will continue for ninth day on Wednesday. Shashank Rao, the leader of the BEST Workers’ Union said that the proposal provided by the high-powered committee does nothing to meet their demands.
Mr Rao made the announcement to continue the strike in front of hundreds of workers at the staff quarters in Wadala.
The report, Mr Rao said, had proposed to partially reduce the disparity between the workers who were hired after 2007 and the rest. “Our demand had been to remove the disparity, it shows that they don’t want to resolve the issue,” he said.
He added that the proposal said nothing on the key demand of the merger of the BEST budget with the primary budget of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST). “This is our main demand. Mumbaikars will get better services and our we will also get job security and not one word on it. It means they don’t want to do it,” he said.
He added that the proposal contained six pages of economic measures to be implemented BEST administration to implement economic measures, which includes wet leasing for buses, freezing of dearness allowance, cutting medical allowance, rationalisation of routes and staff. He called the proposals a “death warrant” that will push BEST workers in the same direction as farmers in the state.
Mr Rao held the Shiv Sena and its chief Uddhav Thackeray responsible for the proposal stating that the proposal seemed to have come from Matoshree, the latter’s residence, and not from the BEST administration or the three member committee.
“Last time we made the mistake on going on Matoshree’s word. This time around we will not back down without having things in writing,” he said adding that he had been told that Mr Thackeray had told Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis not to intervene.
