Mumbai: In what might be a sigh of relief for the non-government employees, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking on Wednesday confirmed that it will press more buses from its fleet into service. BEST has a fleet of nearly 3,400 buses and with state government's 'Mission Begin Again' plan, it is pressing more buses in service each day. On Wednesday it had pressed 2657 buses into service.
Earlier officials of BEST stated that the BEST was unable to press more buses all of a sudden because there had been a dearth of staffers as many of them were not reporting to duty from March ever since the lockdown was imposed. As a result, the administration had filed departmental charge sheets against its employees threatening them with salary cuts.
"The employees are responding to the charge sheets and show-cause notices sent to them and are returning to the job. We are increasing the number of buses in operation each day and with the return of more and more employees we soon will be able to provide maximum service to Mumbaikars," said BEST spokesperson Manoj Varade.
"BEST had paid salary to each of its employees till the month of April. As we fall under emergency services we had to adhere to the guidelines of the government, thus the management had to take some stringent measures. It would have been sheer injustice to the workers who are reporting to work daily, if we had paid those who are sitting at home and not reporting to work," added Varade.
A senior official stated, the influx of staffers returning to work, could lead to the undertaking pressing 300 more buses a day.
"BEST is running 2,500-2600 buses each day, so we may be able to press 10-15 per cent more buses and soon be able to touch 3,000-mark considering the number of conductors and drivers reporting to work," stated the official.
BEST chief medical officer Dr Anil Kumar Singhal stated that each employee returning back to work have to undergo a fitness test before they report to work.
"Each employee will need to undergo a compulsory fitness test. We are screening all those who are returning to work and without the fitness certificate, they won't be able to rejoin duty" stated Dr Singhal.
