Nagpur: Nirmala Bhaisware, an employee in land development office in Wardhaman Nagar, spends almost 50% of her salary on commuting beween office and her home in west Nagpur.
Samir Narayan, an employee from MIDC Hingna, is struggling with reduced salary to manage his transport and household expenses. “My monthly expenditure on commute between my office and house in Indora has increased by almost Rs1,500 per month. Earlier, I used to spend almost Rs1,000 a month on that,” he claimed.
These two were part of two delegations of industrial workers that met the municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B demanding resumption of city operations at the earliest. The delegations were led by Congress and NCP corporators.
NCP corporator Duneshwar Pethe and party leader Prashant Pawar threatened to launch an agitation against the NMC if it failed to resume the city bus operation within 48 hours.
In an ultimatum to the civic body, Pawar pointed out that most of the people commuting in city buses are from poor or middle class families. Covid-19 pandemic has already reduced the income of most such people.
“Non-operation of city buses has added to their woes,” said senior Congress corporator Sandip Sahare who along with corporators Manoj Sangole, Satish Holey, Darshani Dhawad, Sanjay Mahakalkar also led a delegation.
Ferrying over 1.5 lakh people a day, Aapli Buses are lifeline of the city’s mass transport system. Resuming of regular service will benefit middle class people, especially women, pointed out Dhawad.
City buses should have been resumed as they are cheapest mode of public transport for employees working in industrial areas like Hingna, Butibori, Khapri, Pardi, Kalmeshwar etc., he said.
The lockdown has already caused significant losses to three red and one electric bus operators and it is feared demand may not return to pre-lockdown levels due to the norms of physical distancing and perceived risk of commuting even when operations resume.
“3,000-odd employees including drivers, conductors and mechanics associated with Aapli Bus service have also lost their jobs due to ban on city bus operations,” Sahare stated.