NAGPUR: After futile attempt to forcibly take over the Mor Bhavan bus stand for city bus operations, now ruling and opposition corporators of Nagpur Municipal Corporation, led by standing committee chairman Sandeep Joshi and ruling party BJP
leader Pravin Datke have decided to bring a resolution in the civic
house on December 24 asking for the stand to be taken over.

Datke and Joshi told TOI, “all party leaders including leader of
opposition Vikas Thakre, Nationalist Congress party leader Ved Prakash
Arya, Bahujan Samajwadi Party
leader Habib-Ur-Rehman Ansari, BRP leader Raju Lokhande have
unanimously decided to support the resolution demanding the Mor Bhavan
land for operations of city bus service in general body meeting
scheduled on December 24″. All leaders along with 141 corporators will
then meet guardian minister Shivajirao Moghe and hand him over the
resolution, they said.

A day after the police lathi-charged BJP
corporators trying to forcibly enter Mor Bhavan bus terminus, chief
minister Prithviraj Chavan, who also holds transport portfolio, assured
the assembly that the Mor Bhavan transfer issue would be resolved in
eight-days.

The leaders said that if the issue was not resolved
even after CM’s assurance and the resolution, they would adopt other
measurers like agitation, hunger strike and even call Nagpur Bandh for a
day. It is because operating city buses from Mor Bhavan bus would not
only make it convenient for commuters but also for the general traffic
in the Sitabuldi area. “Now if chief minister has announced to resolve
the matter in eight days, we too have decided to pass the resolution in
house,” they added.

Leader of opposition Vikas Thakre, who
attended the all party meeting organized for Mor Bhavan bus stand issue,
supported the plan to operate city buses from Mor Bhavan, but opposed
the operator Vansh Nimay Infraprojects operating state-funded 240 buses
procured under JNNURM. He told TOI, “the operators have not been giving
good service, which is evident from the increasing number of accidents.
We are demanding that the state-funded 240 buses must be run by MSRTC
which has the infrastructure and well-trained drivers. That way, we will
also get Mor Bhavan stand for operations and parking of city bus
services,” he added.

NMC has been operating city bus service in
city on BOT basis since 2007. The body took over from MSRTC at the
latter’s request. The fleet of buses has now increased to 470 and the
number of passengers too has risen. Thus the service requires a
centrally-located space to operate buses, Datke and Joshi said.

Meanwhile, consumer organization Akhil Bhartiya Grahak Panchayat too
came in support of NMC and asked MSRTC to hand over the Mor Bhavan
stand. In a release issued here, the Panchayat president Gajanan Pande
and secretary Sanjay Dharmadhikari have warned MSRTC that they would
resort to massive agitation including chakka-jam if the the stand was
not handed over.