Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
On 7th August, which happens to be BEST day, a press conference was organized by the ‘Our Mumbai Our BEST’ in Mumbai’s press club. The hall was packed with journalists, people’s rights activists, trade union leaders, judges, etc.
In a powerful power point presentation by the ‘Our Mumbai Our BEST’, the advantages of a good public transport system for Mumbai were pointed out. It was explained that if there were a greater number of buses the road traffic will be much less. According to their study they said that since a single bus can carry a large number of people the traffic load can come down as compared to when people travel in cars. To do this the bus system has to be more efficient, that is a greater number of buses and with less rates.
When some years back the bus fares were reduced, and brought to Rs 5 for minimum distance, in a matter of months, the number of bus passengers increased from 22 lakhs to 48 lakhs per day. It encouraged many ordinary citizens including car owners to travel in buses.
In Mumbai, the bus transport is run by BEST (Bombay Electricity Supply and Transport), which is under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The BMC is the richest corporation in the country. However, for such an important activity as public transport the BMC was not ready to give funds
In the presentation it was pointed out that around 12 thousand buses would be required to take care of the present population whereas the present number of buses is only 3000, out of which only 1000 are with the BEST and the rest are wet leased or contractor owned.
These private owned buses are much smaller and badly maintained and break down in the middle of the road causing huge inconvenience to passengers.
It was explained that 50 years ago when the population of Mumbai was much smaller, BEST had more than 4500 buses and it was considered one of the best bus transport services in the country. However, after the BEST Act was amended in 2007, the electricity and transport department were separated and the cross subsidy that the bus transport was getting from electricity revenues was stopped. Subsequently, the BEST services slowly deteriorated with the BMC refusing to subsidize the bus transport.
The presentation pointed out that in all the advanced countries, the bus and public transport system is in the hands of government and is subsidised.
The presentation questioned why the government is spending more than a lakh crore on a loss making metro system when a much smaller amount would be required to increase the bus fleet.
Comrade Tapati Mukhopadhyay, the leader of BUCTU (Bombay University and College Teachers Union) said that the privatization of essential things like transport, electricity, education and health were started after the program of privatization, globalization, and liberalization (LPG) was launched in 1991. These essential services should not be privatized. She pointed out that BEST was one of the very best managed transport services from the time she came to Mumbai 40 years back and she will put all her energies to oppose further deterioration and would be the first to make it better.
Comrade A. Mathew, Secretary of Kamgar Ekta Committee and Convenor of All India Forum against Privatisation pointed out that LPG was the agenda of the Indian monopoly capitalists who are ruling the country. He gave the example of how the Indian Railways is also being deliberately starved of funds for safety, such as track and signal maintenance for which Rs. 1 lakh crores are required but they are spending Rs. 1 lakh crore for bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad which will only benefit the rich. These policies are resulting in increased accidents.
They are cutting down the general and second class coaches and converting all mail and ordinary trains to express and super-fast trains and increasing fares, making train travel difficult for poor people.
He said the government collects majority of its taxes from GST and other indirect taxes. The poorest 50 % contribute 66% of GST collections. The Government is duty bound to spend the money on public transport, health and education, however it wants to privatize all these. He assured the organizers that the All India Forum Against Privatization (AIFAP) would fully support their activities.
Judges and activists all pointed out that the ‘Our Mumbai Our Best’ should approach the municipality, the political parties and the people against the policy of downsizing BEST.
The ‘Our Mumbai Our Best’ then discussed and decided to do more propaganda in the coming months, like collecting people’s feedback through people’s commissions, Jan Sunwai, etc.