Delhi L-G directs deploying terminated bus marshals in pollution mitigation duties

    New Delhi, Oct 24 (PTI) Civil defence volunteers who were terminated as bus marshals last year will be deployed on pollution mitigation-related duties for four months following an order by Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena, officials said on Thursday.
    The lieutenant governor, who is also the chairman of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), has further advised the city government and the chief minister to come up with a concrete scheme based on due process for their future engagement after the four-month employment period, a Raj Niwas official said.
    The services of around 10,000 civil defence volunteers deployed in public buses as marshals were terminated last year over objections raised by the finance and revenue departments that they could only be engaged for duties related to natural disasters.
    In a letter to Chief Minister Atishi, the lieutenant governor said the civil defence volunteers' services were terminated on November 1, 2023, on the recommendation of her predecessor Arvind Kejriwal.
    Atishi responded to Saxena, saying it was he who got the bus marshals terminated at the behest of the BJP.
    "I am happy that the BJP bowed down before the bus marshals. Arvind Kejriwal provided jobs to boys and girls from poor families as bus marshals for giving security to the women. But you removed these 10,000 bus marshals at the behest of the BJP's central government," she wrote in a letter.
    In view of the livelihood concerns of the terminated civil defence volunteers, Saxena suggested that the Delhi government address the issue of their future engagement in a legal manner and in accordance with reservation norms.
    "Even after the passage of one year, the Delhi government has neither undertaken any exercise for their engagement nor come up with a scheme for their re-engagement as per law," Saxena said and added that Atishi herself, in a meeting with him, had assured to set up a committee to prepare a roadmap for addressing the issue.
    "I have not been informed of any follow-up action taken so far," he noted in the letter.
    The lieutenant governor advocated a "humanitarian view" of the hardships faced by the terminated volunteers.
    Since no proposal was forthcoming from the government, Saxena said he was being "forced" to step in.
    Citing the "grim" air pollution situation in Delhi discussed in the DDMA meeting on the day, Saxena said the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) had flagged a lack of adequate enforcement of various anti-pollution measures.
    "I would, therefore, suggest that the divisional commissioner be advised to call out services of civil defence volunteers, specifically those who were engaged as of October 31, 2023, for a duration of say four months and engage them for air pollution mitigation activities," the lieutenant governor wrote to the chief minister.
    This should be done on an engagement basis from November 1 till February-end, he stated.
    The government may take a call regarding their deployment for appropriate duties at pollution under control certificate (PUCC) centres, pollution hotspots, DPCC, and other departments and agencies concerned with the enforcement of anti-air pollution measures.
    Saxena also said that the Delhi government, during the four months, must take concrete steps to formulate a scheme for future employment of these volunteers.
    He said the issue of deployment of these volunteers as bus marshals required the Council of Ministers to deliberate on their required number, roles, eligibility criteria, and, most importantly, whether the posts were temporary or permanent.
    In either case, due process would need to be followed to fill such positions, he added.
    In her response, Atishi alleged that the BJP also got data entry operators, DCW staff and contract workers of the DJB removed from their jobs and asserted, "The one who provides someone a job is greater than the one who takes it away."
    AAP and Kejriwal will ensure that all the terminated contract workers get back their jobs just as they did struggling for the bus marshals, she added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)