Nagpur: The Tuesday meeting of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) transport committee was postponed for want of quorum after not a single member of the 12-member panel turned up, highlighting the growing factionalism within the ruling BJP camp. Committee chairperson Mangala Khekre was forced to defer the meeting despite a packed agenda, including the proposed ‘Dev Darshan Yatra Bus Circuit’, wage revision for contractual bus staff and HRA for conductors.The transport committee is headed by BJP corporator Khekre and has seven other BJP corporators as members. “There was resentment among the members because the chairperson was conducting inspections alone with the municipal commissioner. As a result, the members staged an undeclared boycott,” said party sources. Of late, Khekre has been facing differences with these BJP members, sources added.Officials from the transport department confirmed that the meeting was rescheduled due to lack of quorum. Khekre, however, clarified that today’s meeting was postponed due to her ill health and will now be held on Sept 1.The 12-member panel also has two Congress corporators, one Shiv Sena (UBT) member and one AIMIM corporator. However, none of the members attended the scheduled meeting, leaving Khekre with no option but to postpone it for want of quorum.Requesting anonymity, members say that the chairperson is taking decisions without taking the members into confidence. “She visits depots and sites but does not inform other panel members,” said a BJP corporator who is also a panel member.The meeting was expected to take up the proposal to launch an on-demand ‘Dev Darshan Yatra Bus Circuit’, under which citizens could hire NMC buses for eight-hour religious tours covering 15 destinations, including Ganesh Tekdi, Dragon Palace, Koradi, Deekshabhoomi, Adasa and Dhapewada. The proposed fare ranges from Rs5,000 to Rs7,000 depending on bus capacity.Another major item concerned the proposed Rs4.11/km increase in the payment to diesel bus operators from October 2024 following revision of wages of contractual drivers, conductors and other staff. The panel was also to consider HRA for around 1,880 conductors, involving an estimated additional burden of Rs2.25 crore annually.The proposal to make the smart public toilet at Mor Bhavan Depot-2 free for bus drivers and conductors, with NMC expected to bear an estimated Rs15 lakh annual operating cost, was also listed.
