A Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport employee was injured on Friday when striking BEST employees went on a rampage in the city and indulged in throwing brickbats.

The BEST employees damaged buses at 17 different places in the city since the morning, but cases have been registered only in [connection with the] violence reported at Nagpada and suburban Ghatkopar, police said.

The unidentified BEST employee sustained minor injuries, they said.

The BEST employees are on an indefinite stir since Thursday night seeking revision of pay.

Nearly 44,000 employees of BEST have joined the stir that was launched after negotiations between the unions and the management on pay revision ended in a stalemate, BEST Kamgar Karmachari Sanghatana Kruti Samiti sources said.

Almost all of the 3,400 buses have been off the roads.

The hardest hit by the strike are the commuters. The situation was particularly bad for commuters from south Mumbai.

According to BEST spokesperson A S Tamboli, despite the stir, BEST ran nearly 100 buses on various routes. The state transport corporation has pressed 36 buses into service to ferry passengers within Mumbai.

The government has permitted the MSRTC to run buses from distant suburbs to Mumbai and also allow passengers to embark enroute, Tamboli said.

The number of MSRTC buses will go up to 100 by Saturday, he added.