NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Atishi said on Saturday that about 10,000 Civil Defence Volunteers (CDVs) who were removed as bus marshals last year will return to work for four months from next week, and enforce various anti-pollution measures.
The Delhi government has approved a proposal to this effect, she said.
The call out notices will be issued to the CDVs from Monday and then they can start registration at respective district magistrate office on Tuesday and Wednesday, she said.
Within two-three days of the registration, the CDVs will be deployed on duties like management of pollution hotspots, preventing dust pollution and garbage burning, she said in a press briefing.
The CDVs were deployed as bus marshals in 2018 by then Kejriwal government to ensure women safety but the BJP under a conspiracy got them removed in October 2023, the chief minister alleged.
“However, led by Kejriwal, AAP leaders and ministers fought alongside the removed bus marshals and got them their jobs back,” she said.
The chief minister also said that the Delhi government will soon send a proposal to regularise the CDVs.
After coming to power in 2015, the AAP government had appointed civil defence volunteers as marshals aboard State-run buses on a daily wage of `844 for the safety of women commuters. In October 2023, 10,000 marshals were rendered jobless after a circular issued by the Lieutenant-Governor stated that the appointment process was illegal. While their status as civil volunteers continued, they stopped receiving salaries and working as bus marshals. AAP alleged that the appointments were cancelled by the L-G due to “political vendetta” while the BJP accused the AAP government of playing with the “careers of youth” by employing them without following procedure.
L-G VK Saxena, while reinstating them till February-end, had ordered the government to come up with a “concrete scheme based on due process” for their future engagement after the end of the four-month employment period. He had slammed the government for missing the November 1 deadline to deploy the volunteers for pollution-mitigation efforts.