Diwali has come ahead of time for employees of the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) employees, figuratively speaking. They are pleasantly surprised by the Rs 20,000 Diwali bonus approved by the management and BEST Committee. On November 1, the BEST Committee approved this amount as bonus for every employee, as against the Rs 9,000 given last year.
The state government had announced the Diwali bonus recently but the Shiv Sena-led committee approved the same on Monday. This is highest-ever festival bonus that the employees of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and BEST have received so far. Sources said that the total amount that will be disbursed among the 34,000-plus works out to Rs 62 crore.
“We cleared the Diwali bonus for the BEST employees at the meeting,” said BEST Committee member Sunil Ganacharya.
The BEST Unions had threatened a protest on November 1 if the Diwali bonus was not disbursed; this move was retracted after the Maharashtra government agreed to do so. As per the state government, BMC officials and officers in the BEST will get bonuses of Rs 20,000 each, while teachers/non-teaching staff in secondary schools will get Rs 10,000 each. Health workers will get Rs 5,300 each. This decision will benefit over nine lakh BMC employees and around 34,000 BEST employees.
Amid the lockdown imposed to contain the pandemic outbreak in March 2020, it was the BEST Undertaking that remained instrumental in getting essential duty workers safely to and from work. Sources said that this was the reason the government decided to give bonuses to BEST staffers on a par with BMC employees.
Last year, the BMC gave Rs 15,500 in bonus to each of its employees while the BEST employees got Rs 9,000 each.
The bonus announcement was made at a meeting headed by top officials and Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar Deputy Mayor Suhas Wadkar, Standing Committee Chairman Yashwant Jadhav, BEST Committee Chairman Ashish Chemburkar, BEST General Manager Lokesh Chandra and Joint Commissioner (General Administration) Milind Sawant last week.
Recently, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) increased the dearness allowance (DA) for its employees to 17 per cent, from the existing 12 per cent ahead of Diwali.
source https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/maharashtra-govts-diwali-gift-for-bmc-best-staff-announces-highest-ever-bonus-for-employees
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