Maharashtra: Around 30,000 BEST employees to begin strike today

Mumbai, Jan 7: Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) have decided to go on strike from January 7, midnight onwards for neglecting the demands of the employees.

Under the leadership of Shashank Rao, the transport union has declared a strike for an indefinite period, where more than 95 per cent of BEST employees will be part of the protest.

Earlier, on December 20, employees conducted voting for the strike, and on their major demand is to amalgamate the BMC budget with the BEST budget and sort their salary issue.

In November 2018, BEST management had planned to bring in 1,000 midi and mini AC buses on wet lease throughout the city. The announcement was made during a budget meeting. However, the leader of BEST Workers' Union, Shashank Rao, had disapproved the idea of wet leasing, saying the privatisation scheme in BEST would result in workers risking their jobs.