NEW DELHI: The AAP government on Wednesday was ordered by the Delhi High Court to fill up the vacancies in the fire department as soon as possible, which, according to a PIL is facing a “manpower crunch”.
The directions were issued by the bench of Chief Justice
D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar after the fire department informed the high court that it has initiated steps to recruit around 706 fire operators permanently and 500 on contract.
Taking note of the submissions made by the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) in its affidavit regarding the recruitment process, the court disposed of the plea saying given the steps taken it “saw no further need to monitor the matter”.
In the affidavit, the DFS has said that against a sanctioned strength of 3,311 fire operators, at present it has 2,371 personnel after 484 people joined the fire service this year.
It has also said that on May 30 a proposal was made to hire 500 fire operators on a contract basis for one year, to be extended till permanent recruitment was made, and the same was under the scrutiny of the Delhi government’s finance department.
The statement on the affidavit is in contrast to what the Delhi Fire Services told the court on the last date of hearing that 500 regular employment has already been given as fire operators and additional 500 people have already been appointed on contractual basis.