Decision on subsidy to BEST in a fortnight

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) has been running into heavy losses for the last five years. The transport body has been pleading its parent body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for financial help. A meeting was called on Tuesday at the BMC headquarters to finalise whether the BEST should be given subsidy and the decision has been postponed by a fortnight.

Ravi Raja, leader of Opposition (LOP) of the civic body, stated that on Tuesday a special meeting was called in the BMC headquarters to discuss the poor condition of BEST and the measures to be taken to pull it out of losses. The members in the meeting demanded that a subsidy be given to the transport authority, but the civic chief emphasised on improving the financial status before making such demands.

Raja said, “The BEST’s budget is Rs2,700crore while the losses incurred are Rs1,200crore. That means 50 per cent of the budget is under loss. The Congress party demands that the civic body help the public transport body to cop up the losses.”

To improve BEST’s financial status Rs1,000crore subsidy has been demanded. “A meeting would be called in the next 15 days in the presence of the commissioner regarding merging the BEST budget with the corporation,” Yashwant Jadhav, a leader in the House, remarked.

Meanwhile, neither union members nor the corporators of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) attended the meeting. Manoj Kotak defended his party’s move and stated, “All union members of different parties were called, but the BJP union was not invited.” When asked what is the party’s stand regarding merging BEST’s budget Kotak said, “The day the proposal is tabled the party will present its stand on it.”