Nagpur: A day after Aapli Bus services were severely disrupted by a strike by conductors and drivers over pending service-related demands, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) on Thursday agreed in principle to several key demands following a high-level meeting chaired by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) commissioner Vipin Itankar.The agitation on Wednesday, led by Shiv Sena (Shinde) leader Nitin Tiwari, crippled bus operations during the morning peak hours and inconvenienced thousands of commuters. Mayor Neeta Thakre, MLA Pravin Datke, standing committee chairperson Shivani Dani-Wakhare, transport committee chairperson Mangala Khekare, ruling party leader Narendra Borkar and senior officials attended Thursday’s meeting aimed at ending the deadlock.Addressing the media, the mayor said implementation of the decisions would impose an additional financial burden of around Rs12 crore annually on the civic body.She and Khekare also apologised to commuters for the inconvenience caused by the strike.Among the major decisions, NMC agreed in principle to revise operators’ per-km rates to facilitate payment of arrears to ancillary staff in accordance with the October 2024 govt resolution. Conductors engaged through Chalo Mobility will also become eligible for a minimum 5% house rent allowance over their basic pay and dearness allowance in line with labour department norms.The civic administration also directed Chalo Mobility to ensure conductors get 26 working days every month by rationalising deployment. Operators have been asked to provide two uniforms every year, ensure compliance with Employees’ State Insurance Corporation benefits, honour festival leave and statutory compensation provisions, and clear pending 2025 privilege leave dues within seven days after verification of grievances.On the infrastructure front, operators assured the civic body that permanent toilets at Wathoda depot would be completed by the end of this month, while NMC will upgrade passenger and staff amenities at Mor Bhavan bus terminus.Meanwhile, NMC said it would initiate penalty proceedings against Aapli Bus operators for failing to maintain scheduled services during Wednesday morning’s disruption and hold them accountable under contractual obligations.
