Credit war breaks out as Delhi LG orders deployment of CDVs

Lieutenant governor VK Saxena on Thursday directed that civil defence volunteers (CDVs) be employed for air pollution mitigation efforts for four months, starting from November 1.
Saxena issued the direction while chairing a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), and soon afterwards, a dispute broke out between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the proposed engagement of these volunteers.
To be sure, around 10,000 CDVs earlier worked as bus marshals in Delhi, but the state revenue and finance departments raised objections noting that these volunteers could only be deployed during natural disasters, leading to the discontinuation of their services from November 2023.
The sacking of CDVs has remained a key political issue since.
On Thursday, Saxena, in a post on X, said he found an opportunity to give relief to these volunteers.
“Having mulled over the vexed problem of livelihood of thousands of CDVs engaged as Bus Marshalls whose services were terminated an year back at the behest of then CM Shri Arvind Kejriwal, found an opportunity today to give them immediate relief by way of engaging them as volunteers to mitigate the disaster of air pollution in Delhi for the next 04 months,” the LG posted.
He also wrote to chief minister Atishi over the same.
The AAP quickly claimed credit for the development, with Atishi saying that AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal has “fulfilled his promise”.
“Arvind Kejriwal has provided jobs to boys and girls from poor families as bus marshals to ensure the safety of women in Delhi. However, a year ago, on the direction of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s central government, over 10,000 bus marshals were removed from their jobs. For the past year, these bus marshals have been struggling on the streets. Ministers and legislators from the Aam Aadmi Party have stood shoulder to shoulder with them in this struggle. Today, due to this struggle, the Bharatiya Janata Party had to bow down and reinstate them,” Atishi said in response to the LG’s letter.
The BJP, however, claimed that the credit goes to their party, as they had raised the issue in the state assembly.
“Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva was trying to get these dismissed civil defence volunteers re-employed for the past several months and on October 5, he had arranged the first formal meeting of the delegation of volunteers with the lieutenant governor and got the assurance of a solution before Diwali. As soon as the order of the Lieutenant Governor was issued, hundreds of volunteers came to the Delhi BJP office today and greeted Sachdeva and everyone offered sweets to each other,” Delhi BJP said in a statement.