Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday asked his colleague Kailash Gahlot to appoint civil defence volunteers as home guards and depute them as bus marshals.
In a letter addressed to Gahlot, the chief minister wrote, “Legal objection has been raised about the continuation of civil defence volunteers as bus marshals. It has been said that civil defence volunteers cannot be engaged in regular duties and that they can be called only during any disaster. Therefore, it has been suggested that home guards be appointed as bus marshals instead of civil defence volunteers.”
Citing that he has separately proposed to LG V K Saxena that civil defence volunteers should be continued as bus marshals till adequate number of home guards are appointed in their place, Kejriwal said, “If the bus marshals are suddenly removed, it will not be good for the safety of women travellers.”
Kejriwal said the existing civil defence volunteers working as bus marshals come from very humble backgrounds and it will put their families in severe financial crisis if they are suddenly removed.
“We should develop a plan to appoint them only as home guards and continue them as bus marshals, unless there is any specific complaint against any individual. So, if we appoint the same set of people as home guards and put them on bus marshal duty, on one hand, the government will get experienced people and on the other hand, their jobs will continue. Please prepare a plan accordingly,” he wrote to Home Minister Kailash Gahlot.
The bus marshals scheme was introduced by the transport department of the Delhi government in 2015 to improve women’s safety in public buses in the city.
Under the scheme, civil defence volunteers and home guards referred to as bus marshals are deputed in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and cluster buses, and recruited by the Department of Revenue and the Directorate General of Home Guards respectively.