‘Unacceptable proposition’: L-G Vinai Kumar Saxena slams Delhi government over bus marshal proposal

Saxena advised Delhi Chief Minister Atishi to direct the minister and additional chief secretary (ACS) in charge of transport to formulate the policy and then submit the matter for his consideration.

“I have perused the notes of the ACS (Transport) and chief minister at pre-pages and the proposal, where it has been proposed that the Lieutenant Governor should draw up a plan…Like any other scheme of the Government, in any other state or the Government of India, such scheme has to be backed by rationale of requirement, purpose, deployment details, reservation provisions for SC/ST/OBC/EWS and most of all sufficient budgetary allocation…,” Saxena said in his note.

He said that all these tasks are to be undertaken by the departments entirely under the control of the chief minister and the ministers, being transferred subjects.

Pointing out that the term ‘bus marshals’ was a “misnomer” deliberately created by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to mislead people, Saxena said that the people deployed in such roles were civil defence volunteers and these posts were terminated by former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Terming the proposal “an unacceptable proposition”, Saxena said, “By that absurd logic, I should also start exercising the powers of the Council of Ministers on a whole range of transferred subjects. I feel disappointed that even though the chief minister has full knowledge of the facts of the case, she has chosen to send this flippant reference in the matter.”

He further said that he may have “discretion” on matters of services but the “matter at this stage is a policy matter and strictly lies in the domain of government transport being transferred subjects”.

Saxena also said that he had advised Atishi in the presence of the Leader of the Opposition that the government should evolve conceptual clarity on the subject and take an appropriate policy decision.

“A structured cadre of Home Guard already exists under the supervisory control of Delhi Police. It is advised that the department should engage with Delhi Police for deployment of Home Guards to ensure optimal use of resources,” he said.

Further, he said, the transport department should spell out its policy framework and terms and conditions before such deployment. “Based on the policy decision taken by the government and the scale and nature of posts decided by the government, the matter related to creation of those posts and approval of recruitment rules framed by the department shall come up for my consideration,” he said in a note.

Further, Saxena said, he had already approved the call out for civil defence volunteers to mitigate air pollution. He also pointed out that it was on his directive that the home department had provided special preferences to civil defence volunteers in recruitment as Home Guard volunteers.

Pointing out that the latest selection of 1,669 volunteers included 263 civil defence volunteers, he said the government has to find a permanent solution in a similar way “rather than playing with sentiments” of the volunteers who come from humble backgrounds.

In response to Saxena’s note, Delhi Urban Development Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj accused the BJP of misleading bus marshals for the last year and said Saxena had removed the bus marshals due to a BJP “conspiracy”.

“A note came from the L-G’s office, and in that note, the BJP has completely exposed itself. They tried to craft the note carefully, but they have fallen into their own trap…The L-G does not want to reinstate them and is making excuses. This is part of a larger conspiracy by the BJP to remove these bus marshals. Now, with the entire Cabinet repeatedly writing to you, there is no excuse left,” he said.