It’s raining sops for commuters,BEST in election mode

On Tuesday,the BEST launched a special bus service for women on route no 169 (from Worli village to Veer Kotwal Nagar) and plans to start few more in the coming days in different parts of the city. The BEST already has 36 routes dedicated for women. After getting elected as the BEST chairman,Shiv Sena corporator Sunil Shinde has been interacting with the commuters. Under the special programme ‘BEST at your door steps’,Shinde has been taking feedback from the commuters on the services.

Not only that,the BEST has started schemes for the physically challenged and schoolchildren. Under the new scheme,if the schoolchildren buy a bus pass for five months,the sixth month would be free of cost. Similar concession has been extended to physically challenged people.

The BEST is dominated by the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance. After suffering a setback in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections,the Sena does not want to lose Mumbai and Thane to Congress. In the last assembly elections,Sena lost seats to either Congress-NCP alliance or the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in South and Central Mumbai. Most of the campaigns undertaken by the BEST are focused in south and central Mumbai.

“The new services are good,but it is no secret that it is being done keeping elections in mind. With election approaching,every corporator wants to have more BEST services in or from his ward. Buses for women is a novel method to attract the voters,” said Ravi Raja,Congress corporator and BEST committee member.

“Its wrong to say that it is done keeping elections in mind. The corporators are the link between the BEST and the people and if there is a demand for any service,it becomes easier for us to meet it,” said a senior BEST official.