BEST has a big budget but NMMT has a big heart
BMC, the richest corporation of Asia, has money problems and faces difficulty in paying the salaries to the employees of its transport undertaking. Its counterpart, Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT), however, claims to be paying the ‘best’ salaries to its employees. The on-going stalemate between the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking and its workers’ union is mainly because of the low salaries paid to the employees, who operate the life line of Mumbai.
A senior official from the NMMT told The Free Press Journal, like all public transport entities, they too face losses, but give priority to workers' welfare. “Just like the BEST, we too suffer losses. However, we ensure our employees draw a handsome salary. I can say that the NMMT employees get the best salaries compared to other transport undertakings across Maharashtra.” This also could be because NMMT has fewer employees as compared to BEST, but Navi Mumbai transport wing believes in the welfare of its staff.
“The BMC might have a big budget but we have a big heart as we never dissatisfy our employees. We do suffer from huge losses, since we are not a profit-making organisation,” the officer added. According to the officer, for instance, if the BEST makes a loss of Rs 40 on a daily basis, then the NMMT makes a loss of Rs 12. Since the number of routes and buses they have are way lesser than BEST. In fact, only three lakh commuters use the NMMT on daily basis.
“We are the only transport undertaking across Maharashtra, which face minimum amount of loss. We ensure the staff are given their increments, bonus and perks on time. In fact, we are the first public body to implement the sixth pay commission for NMMT employees,” the senior officer added. Currently, the deadlock in BEST is over paying their salaries, giving the employees pay hikes and bonuses. The BEST authorities have complained being a lossmaking body, if they give into the demands of the workers the transport entity will shut down. The BEST workers’ union said, in fact half of the 33,000 employees are being paid salaries of only Rs 15,000, which is far lesser than the minimum salary a government employee is supposed to receive. Union leader Shashank Rao, said, “The least expected from the BMC is that it should give our workers a decent pay hike. We are not given salaries as per any pay commission as is the case with employees of the state and union government. For all the highest budget of BMC, it doesn't know how to pay its staff.”
Notably, BEST has a fleet of 3,337 buses spread over its 27 depots. The BEST has a manpower of over 33,000 which is much more than that of 2,835 employees of the NMMT. The NMMT has only 475 buses distributed in its three depots.