Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, on Wednesday, approved the deployment of Civil Defence Volunteers (CDVs) for a period of four months, starting from November 1.
The LG also urged the Delhi government to take concrete steps towards devising a scheme for the permanent employment of the bus marshals separately as he had directed in his earlier letter to the chief minister on October 20.
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In a note to Chief Minister Atishi, Saxena asked for the scheme to clearly define the roles of bus marshals, their rationale, and service conditions to be approved by the Cabinet and called for immediate steps to be taken for the creation of the posts and making budgetary provisions for the same to bring the issue of bus marshals to a logical conclusion.
“It may be recalled that your predecessor, Arvind Kejriwal, had recommended to me in October 2023 that the services of CDVs be terminated till a number is determined through a proper exercise,” the LG stated, adding, “Responding to his note, I had suggested that a core strength of CDVs be retained in the revenue department for the purpose of disaster-related work, and had also raised the issue of livelihood concerns of CDVs who come from a humble background and had asked the government to give it serious attention.”
However, no proposal for deployment of CDVs had been received till September 2024, he said.
“In the last two weeks, air pollution is on the rise and there is an urgent need to activate local enforcement measures. In order to mitigate air pollution I approve the proposal to call out all CDVs who were deployed as of October 30, 2023, as per extant Rules and regulations,” the note read.
However, the services of these CDVs shall be utilised only for the purpose of prevention of air pollution in terms of the plan of DPCC and they should not be diverted to any other department for any other work, it mentioned.