Mumbai: BEST employees to go on strike from August 6 midnight

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After the good news of BEST fare cut, here's some bad news. BEST employees have threatened to go on an indefinite strike from the midnight of August 6 to press for their demands of getting a salary hike, implementation of the merger of BMC and BEST budget and acceptance of the Memorandum of Understanding that had been signed during the earlier strike call.

"We have been waiting and waiting as to we will be called for discussions, but despite several representations, the discussions are still awaited and our demands remain unmet," Shashank Sharad Rao of BEST Workers' Union said.

Employees had gone on a nine-day strike in January 2019 and the undertaking had lost revenue of R19.88 crore during the strike. As many as 17 buses had been damaged in 10 stone-pelting incidents and this caused a loss of R37,318.

Ironically, on August 7 every year, the Brihanmumbai Electrical Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking celebrates ‘BEST Divas' with a public meeting graced by various dignitaries - senior officials, members of the BEST Committee, and leaders of political parties in the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai to mark the establishment of the undertaking.

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