241 MCD staff man 1-km road in Old Delhi

How many people are required to man a 1-km road in Delhi? Believe it or not, but the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has deployed 241, including 12 women, personnel at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Road at Kauriya Pul near Old Delhi Railway Station to check traffic movement. Hamari Jamatia reports.

How many people are required to man a 1-km road in Delhi? Believe it or not, but the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has deployed 241, including 12 women, personnel at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Road at Kauriya Pul near Old Delhi Railway Station to check traffic movement.

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All these MCD employees are domestic breeding checkers (DBCs) whose job is to check the spread of mosquitoes. Their current work is to ensure cycle rickshaws ply strictly on the dedicated lane.

From December 20 to December 26, 186 people were stationed along the stretch. The corporation, on Tuesday, added another 55. They come to man the road in two shifts and are paid R6,600 per month.

These checkers are generally employed during the summer months. But as around 3,300 DCBs with MCD are rendered jobless after the mosquito season, the Delhi High Court had asked the civic body to give work during winters.

This year, the MCD decided to split the checkers into two equal teams of 1,700 each and depute them in the property tax and the building departments.

While the tax department accepted them, the building department was not able to distribute work and decided to send the 241 DCBs to SPM road as the MCD was looking for people to decongest the stretch.

The DCBs stationed on the road say that they are being treated unfairly as decongesting the area and diverting traffic is the responsibility of the traffic police.

Chairman of the works committee Jagdish Mamgain said this might be the highest amount the MCD is spending to maintain a road.

“The stretch is only about 1 km and yet it has placed so many people. There are so many roads in Delhi where there is a need for marshals. MCD’s executive wing should immediately make another plan for the DBCs,” he said.

He said there are another 100 DBCs that have not been given any work yet.