The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are seemingly battling it out over cornering the credit for reinstating civil defence volunteers (CDVs) in Delhi. A delegation of CDVs also met BJP leaders, expressing thanks for their re-employment. Addressing a press conference, Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj called the move a victory of the struggle of the bus marshals and the AAP against the BJP. "The struggle of the bus marshals and Arvind Kejriwals hard work has yielded results. The BJP-led Central government had to bow down as these volunteers will now be given jobs for four months to help mitigate pollution in the national capital," Bharadwaj said. The bus marshals will now assist the government in implementing the anti-pollution measures in Delhi, he added. Bharadwaj also accused the BJP of doing "shoddy" politics which led to the loss of volunteer jobs, and claimed that the Delhi government would make efforts to ensure the marshals receive permanent employment at the end of the four-month period. The AAP also claimed that as promised by former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal the AAP government has reinstated the CDVs for a period of four months to mitigate air pollution in the city. The BJP also welcomed the move and accused the AAP government of "misleading" the volunteers. BJP MLA and Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta, said, "This not only marks a victory for the BJP but also exposes the AAP government which was deliberately misleading them (bus marshals)." The AAP government continuously misled these volunteers as they could not be reinstated solely as bus marshals since they were temporarily recruited as civil defence volunteers for disaster management purposes, Gupta said. Scores of volunteers also met Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva who expressed his gratitude to the Lieutenant Governor for renewing the contract of hundreds of contract nursing staff a few days ago and restoring the services of CDVs. The result of Arvind Kejriwals directionless politics is that today thousands of youth who have worked on contract in the Delhi government are unemployed. As soon as BJP comes to power in 2025, it is committed to regularize the contracts of all Civil Defence Volunteers as well as all contract workers, Sachdeva said.

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