Bus strike...

Rao was referring to economic reforms that had been suggested in 2017 by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief Ajoy Mehta. However, this objection was not part of the workers’ initial demands, which included raising basic pay and merging the budgets of the ailing BEST and the cash-rich BMC. “The committee was also mum on the merger of the budgets. The services of BEST are vital for Mumbai, but there is not a single word about this in the report,” Rao said, while addressing BEST workers at Wadala after Tuesday’s court hearing.

Rao called the committee’s report a “death warrant for BEST workers”, and alleged that the committee’s proposals were being influenced by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. He added that Thackeray told chief minister Devendra Fadnavis not to intervene to end the strike. The Bombay high court decided to step in after a public interest litigation was filed by advocate Datta Mane, pointing to the inconvenience the strike was causing citizens. For the past nine days, commuters have been scrambling to find other modes of transport, as the city’s secondlargest public transport mode stopped working. The BEST buses cater to at least 25 lakh commuters a day, and their absence has also caused traffic jams on roads and more crowds on the suburban trains.

In court on Tuesday, the highpowered committee suggested some interim measures to help the striking BEST employees, provided they withdraw the strike. As one of the demands was to increase the pay grade of 15,000 low-grade workers employed after 2012, the committee suggested these employees be given a ten-step increment on basic pay in time-bound manner. Both the BEST administration’s advocate and the counsel of the workers appeared agreeable to the offer. The workers’ counsel told the division bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice NM Jamdar the unions would meet and that she would report their decision in court on Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, a letter from the BEST administration to the high-power panel was leaked to the media on Tuesday. The letter says the burden of fulfilling the unions’ pay demands would amount to ₹550 crore. “Considering the present financial situation of BEST, it is very difficult to support the demands,” the letter said. The BEST management claimed the administration had planned reforms but could not implement them as the union had challenged the decisions in court.

The letter also said rather than agreeing to discuss a comprehensive package, the union only wants to resolve junior grade in a piecemeal manner. The administration raised con- cerns about reducing the fleet size of buses from the current 3,337. According to BEST management, the fleet size of buses would reduce to 1,851 by 2022 if buses are not hired on a wet lease.

Meanwhile, transport department said they have operated 600 private buses apart from the buses operated by the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC). Central and Western Railway are operating 18 additional local train services.