Protests at depots, bus stands on 78th BEST foundation day
Mumbai, Aug. 8 -- Aamchi Mumbai Aamchi BEST (AMAB), a civil society platform comprising commuters and activists, held protests at various locations in the city on Thursday, seeking improvement in bus services operated by the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking.
The protests, which drew over 100 participants, were held a day after a row erupted over two departments of the state government naming two separate Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers as general manager of the cash-strapped BEST. One of the departments subsequently denied making any appointment and Asheesh Sharma assumed charge as the BEST general manager.
AMAB had called for protests in front of BEST depots in the city on Thursday, to coincide with BEST's 78th foundation day. Accordingly, members of the civil society group started assembling outside depots and bus stands outside railway stations from 10am.
"Over 20 different organisations including BEST employees' unions participated in the protests," said Hussain Indorewala, an urban researcher and founding member of AMAB who participated in a demonstration at Andheri in the evening. "We also submitted a memorandum of demands to the officers in-charge at 21 bus depots across the city."
Demands enlisted in the memoranda included discontinuation of the wet lease system, immediate rollback of the recent fare hike, restoration of long-distance routes that were canceled/ curtailed in the recent past, and integration of the BEST budget with the budget of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), in line with sections 126 and 134 of the BMC Act, 1888....
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