BEST committee slams management for paying salaries in cash and coins

MUMBAI: The BrihanMumbai Electric

Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking committee members are an angry lot. They have slammed the administration for paying part salary to its employees in coins, despite signing a memorandum of agreement with a bank.

Earlier on January 5, the BEST committee gave a nod to a contract with a public bank for regularly lif ting cash from BEST depots and bus stations. However, on January 14, the BEST management issued a circular informing its employees that, this month, they will receive a salary up to Rs 16,000 in the form of cash and coins of smaller denominations earned from ticket sales. “Receiving salary in the form of coins and currency is tedious and nobody takes the blame if an employee gets damaged notes,” said Sunil Ganacharya, senior BEST committee member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

He informed that 10 days af ter the contract was approved on January 5, the bank didn't send its employees to lif t cash from the depots.

“The administration told us the contract is about only coin lif ting and not for disbursing salaries. They tabled the proposal in haste without having a proper understanding on the matter,” Ganacharya added. -