New Delhi, Oct 30 The Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s Standing Committee on Friday directed officials to initiate the recruitment process for 1,066 vacant posts in its Public Health Department, citing staff shortages that could hamper efforts to prevent mosquito-borne diseases.
The apex financial committee of the civic body, chaired by Satya Sharma, also approved a proposal to introduce a barrier-free toll collection system at 126 entry points to the national capital and a Rs 923.57-crore project to deploy 70 mechanical road-sweeping machines over 10 years.
According to officials, these MRS machines, which were bound to reach the national capital in the first week of November in the peak pollution season, have been delayed.
According to the proposal, the civic body also aims to fulfil 1,066 vacancies, including 14 anti-malaria officers, 105 malaria inspectors, 398 assistant malaria inspectors and 549 multi-tasking staff (MTS) in the Public Health Department.
According to the MCD’s vector-borne report, October has so far accounted for 396 dengue cases and 94 malaria cases. Dengue cases in October 2026 have already surpassed the 377 cases recorded in the entire month of 2025.
The total number of dengue and malaria cases this year has already crossed 993 and 337, respectively.
The proposal highlighted the shortage of field personnel responsible for mosquito surveillance, inspection of breeding sites, anti-larval operations, fogging and public awareness campaigns, particularly in view of the annual threat posed by dengue, malaria and chikungunya.
Sharma directed officials to initiate the recruitment process without delay and begin contractual or agreement-based appointments if regular recruitment is likely to take time.
During the meeting, councillors from both the ruling and the opposition parties raised issues concerning sanitation, road repairs, shortage of sanitation workers and maintenance of parks.
Sharma directed zonal deputy commissioners to conduct surprise inspections of their offices and monitor staff attendance, saying public representatives should not have to repeatedly visit the MCD headquarters to get ward-level grievances addressed.
She also asked officials to ensure that at least one park in every ward is equipped with a rainwater harvesting system.
In another major decision, the committee approved upgrading the toll collection system at 126 entry points to Delhi through Multi-Lane Free Flow (MLFF) technology, under which commercial vehicles will not have to stop at barriers to pay road tax and Environment Compensation Charge (ECC).
The proposed system will use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology to identify moving vehicles and facilitate automatic fee collection.
The project will be awarded for six years, with the first six months earmarked for designing, developing and implementing the system and the remaining 54 months for its operation and maintenance. The existing RFID-based collection system will continue during the transition.
A high-level committee has recommended an annual minimum reserve price of Rs 910 crore for road tax collection, which will serve as the base price for the tender and not as guaranteed revenue for the corporation. ECC collection will be based on the actual recovery.
The committee also approved a Rs 923.57-crore project to deploy 70 mechanical road-sweeping machines on MCD roads over the next 10 years to reduce dust accumulation and particulate matter generated by vehicular movement.
The project has been divided into three packages. Lion Services Limited will deploy 29 machines at a cost of Rs 369.53 crore, while a consortium of GA Infra Private Limited and VN Engineering Company will provide 28 machines at Rs 368.83 crore. The remaining 13 machines will be deployed by JS Enviro Services Private Limited at Rs 185.20 crore.
Officials said delays in deploying 70 mechanical road sweeping machines (MRSMs), which were expected to nearly double Delhi’s mechanised road-sweeping fleet ahead of the winter pollution season, have prompted a contingency plan. The MCD has initiated the process of hiring 40 additional mechanical road sweepers for four months to augment the existing fleet.
Road dust remains a significant contributor to Delhi’s air pollution. The civic body currently operates 66 mechanical road sweepers across around 1,400 km of arterial roads wider than 60 feet.
Satya Sharma also said that the civic body will bring a proposal in the near future to implement a water harvesting system in each of the 250 wards.
(PTI News)
