MUMBAI: More than 210 buses — around 8% of the fleet — were off roads early Monday morning till afternoon due to flash protests by staffers, including drivers and conductors, at Pratiksha Nagar and Dharavi depots. This caused major inconvenience to lakhs of commuters on various routes during morning peak hours. The services were restored to normalcy by afternoon.
The stir was a fallout of an incident at Pratiksha Nagar depot, where a woman bus conductor of a wet lease bus alleged misbehaviour by her superior when she approached him with a request for transfer to another department with ‘lighter duties’.
The woman, in a viral video, mentioned that she was pregnant and requested her superior to give her a desk job. Instead, the latter informed her that she could leave the job of conductor and stay at home, she alleged in the video.
BEST spokesperson Sudas Sawant said, “The drivers and other staffers went on a flash protest to support the woman conductor. While 110 buses were impacted at Pratiksha Nagar depot, 100 buses were badly hit with no drivers at Dharavi bus depot. This affected our morning services, but the buses were back by 12.20pm. We also operated our own buses on routes served by these contractual buses.”
Sawant further said that a mathadi union activist took up the woman conductor’s cause and confronted the superior officer of the wet lease firm on Friday. This led to an altercation, and the superior officer was reportedly assaulted, after which a case was registered with Wadala truck terminal police station. He added that the case is being probed by the police and refused to comment.
Shiv Sena UBT union leader Suhas Sawant said the protest was in support of the woman conductor. “However, by evening, the services were back to normal,” he added.
On the day of Bhai Dooj in November last year, commuters in parts of western suburbs were impacted as there was a drop in frequency of buses due to flash protests by a section of drivers over various demands, including Diwali bonus. Of a total scheduled turnout of 1,266 buses, there were 1159 buses — a shortage of 107 buses on roads.