The Times of India              01.11.2013

Raut is new NMC transport panel chief

NAGPUR: Senior BJP corporator Sudhir 'Bandu' Raut has been unanimously elected as chairperson of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) transport committee. The 13-member committee will mainly deal with Starbus service, which is almost always mired in controversies.

The General Body had appointed 12 of the 13 members to the committee in September. Chairman of NMC standing committee is the ex-officio thirteenth member. Opposition parties Congress, NCP and BSP did not put up a candidate. Four opposition members Prashant Dhawad, Arun Dawre and Sandip Sahare (Congress) and Prakash Gajbhiye (NCP) boycotted the election. However, BSP member Murlidhar Meshram voted for Raut.

The decision to constitute the city transport committee with only corporators as members has drawn flak from experts and civic activists. It is more of a please-all exercise. Three co-opted corporators, Prakash Totwani, Sanjay Bhonde and Mahendra Raut are part of the committee. The Starbus service has several lacunae and many consumer activists felt that appointment of experts to the committee would have improved the service.