New Delhi:Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has directed the Delhi Disaster Management Authority to deploy civil defence volunteers for pollution control works for four months starting on November 1.
Delhi Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj said, "As an immediate relief, all these people will be immediately deployed to duty following the ongoing campaign against pollution." The minister also clarified that after four months, the bus marshals will be brought back to their previous duty.
Officials said that the bus marshals will create awareness about the hazards of air pollution and ways to control it. Meanwhile, there was a ruckus between the Delhi Secretariat and Raj Niwas over the restoration of bus marshals. The Aam Aadmi Party government took this issue seriously, and Delhi Chief Minister Atishi also met the LG.
In October, the services of about 10,000 Civil Defense volunteers were terminated. The LG approved the proposal sent by the then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, after which the Civil Defense Volunteers started protesting.
In 2015, the Bus Marshal Scheme was started in public buses for the safety of women. Under the scheme, Civil Defense Volunteers and Home Guards, called Bus Marshals, were appointed in DTC and Collector buses and recruited by the Revenue Department and the Home Guard Directorate. After the formation of the AAP government, there was talk of deploying marshals in buses in view of women's safety.
Then the Kejriwal-led government appointed civil defense volunteers and distributed them with different responsibilities. Most of these civil defence volunteers have been serving in buses as bus marshals to date. Bus marshals and civil defence volunteers have been protesting from time to time, demanding payment of their salaries.
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