Citizens Speak Out On BEST Crisis: Public Hearing Highlights Woes, Demands Action

It was an inspiring, learning, encouraging experience last evening. People from different communities, languages, income groups, different corners of Mumbai spoke the truth to authorities. About the harrowing experience they were having with the BEST bus service. It was once a service the city was proud of and is now driven into a crisis because of government policies.

The most moving were experiences narrated by school girls , they were articulate and asked questions, why are we being denied basic services

 It was their suffering that in a way made them so resilient, they spoke to an unfamiliar gathering in an unfamiliar place with such confidence.

One girl complained that if she managed to get into a crowded bus, her mother could not.

First there was a long walk from home to the bus depot, then a long wait there in heat, some nearly faint because of the glare and loss of energy. , if you managed to cling to a bus you find that the service is terminated midway, said Kashish Khan, an 8th standard student from Bandra east.

Even with all precautions people reach schools, colleges, offices, other work places late. Even share autos are not affordable and no alternative. Poorer people are more vulnerable, bus stops are far away from their dwellings, auto rickshaws do not like to go there and charge hefty amounts.

The occasion was a Jan Sunwai, public hearing of grievances, organised by Aamchi Mumbai Aamchi BEST at Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh in Mumbai. On the dais listening to the travails of citizens were Gayatri Singh, lawyer, Prof Sanjeev Chandorkar, who explains economics issues in simple terms to a wide section on social media, elsewhere, Anil Singh, senior journalist, and Ranganath Satavase, a former BEST bus undertaking employee and participants in many struggles of employees.

The middle class is badly hit too and angry, this was evident in speeches by Yesha Merchant from Juhu , Sharmila Vas, Patricia D’souza and Lalita Devnally from Bandra west.

One of the most vociferous was Rupesh Shenolikar, he was well equipped with statistics and arguments with which he can take on any official.

Every one was deeply dissatisfied with privatisation, poor quality of service, breakdowns and fires of privately owned buses run by BEST.

All were unanimous in opposing redevelopment of bus depots, past experience was very bad, developers had not paid BEST for the land, some had left projects half way, abandoned, desolate, in squalor.

Shekhar Hattangadi, a Harvard-trained senior journalist and lawyer, was highly impressed by the presentations, he sat through the proceedings for more than three hours though he is recovering from a heart condition. It was also good to find in the audience Dr Rakesh Kumar, a senior environment scientist , who says BEST buses are most vital for pollution control and later said to me there were enough documents with the MMRDA itself which stress the importance of public transport and its role in reducing congestion and pollution.

The presentation by 36 people was preceded by extensive campaigning in various parts of Mumbai to mobilise the voices of common people. Rekha George , TISS professor and AMAB supporter, easily switched fluently to Marathi while announcing the names of speakes when the need arose.

The gathering was also addressed by Hussein Indorewala, deputy convenor, Jag Narayan Gupta, trade union leader, and others.

Gayatri Singh said the municipal corporation simply could not shirk its responsibility towards BEST Undertaking, it was very much its part as provided in the Act. The talk of a unified transport authority in Mumbai would further reduce the independence of the public sector .

Sanjeev Chandorkar, a former BEST mechanical engineer, said the BEST budget should become part of the civic budget as had been done in the case of the railway budget being merged with the general budget.

I heard the chief minister speak at YASHDA in Pune at the 75th anniversary of Pune municipal corporation this morning. He said people were looking for end to end solutions to transport problems, like a person may take a Metro train and then take an auto to another destination. The point is only the BEST bus service can provide this point to point service because it is a hundred times more flexible than the metro. The government authorities will never admit this but this is a fact the authorities must understand.

Metro can never, never, never provide such connectivity because we know fully well now the locations of Metro stations and we must realise there are multiple points in this large metropolis which cannot be approached with ease by Metro.

With google and other technologies available even a child will now understand that government’s claims on most issues are without any foundation.

(The author is a senior journalist who champions the cause of pedestrians and bus commuters)

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