Bharat bandh protest on May 31 cost BEST `1 cr

The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) incurred a loss of more than Rs1 crore in the Bharat bandh called by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies on May 31 to protest against the hike in petrol prices, the administration informed the BEST committee on Tuesday. HT reports.

The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) incurred a loss of more than Rs1 crore in the Bharat bandh called by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies on May 31 to protest against the hike in petrol prices, the administration informed the BEST committee on Tuesday.

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The BEST committee is the governing body of the electricity and transport provider, which is an undertaking of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Transport.

Four passengers, three bus drivers and two bus conductors were injured in stone-pelting incidents on May 31.

The BEST bus services suffered heavy losses in damages and a drop in the sale of tickets. Around 156 buses were pelted with stones and the cost borne by the authority to fix the damages worked out to Rs2. 97 lakh.

Also, the drop in sale of tickets led to a loss of Rs1. 05 crore.

While criticising the protest, the opposition party members demanded that the onus of recovering the losses should be on political parties that organised the bandh.

“It is a fact that the BEST undertaking is running into losses. In spite of it, the buses were damaged in the name of protests over petrol price hike,” said Ravi Raja, Congress corporator.

Arguing that the damage was only a testimony to genuine public rage over the hike, BJP corporator, Dilip Patel, said: “Enough precautionary measures should have been put in place. They should have fitted grills on windows to ensure passenger safety.”