Disaster management staff working under the Delhi government will see their pay rise by as much as 100%, the first such increase in 16 years.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced the decision in a statement on Sunday, saying the government had "delivered justice" to disaster management personnel whose pay had stayed frozen since 2009.
The revision applies to those working under the Delhi State Disaster Management Authority, project officers, district project officers, and project coordinators.
These roles were originally created in 2009 with backing from the United Nations Development Programme.
Since then, project officers and district project officers had continued to draw a fixed monthly salary of Rs 25,000, while project coordinators earned Rs 20,000, figures that had not budged in one and a half decades, according to the report.
Gupta explained that the anomaly stemmed from these posts never being tied to any standard government pay scale or category. As a result, staff missed out on the periodic pay revisions and Dearness Allowance that regular government employees receive over time, she said.
These employees carry out statutory functions mandated under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. Their responsibilities span drafting district-level disaster plans, conducting scientific risk assessments, and identifying vulnerabilities in high-risk parts of the city and among at-risk populations.
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Beyond planning, the staff are tasked with devising strategies to reduce disaster risk, liaising across different government departments, and running Emergency Operation Centres when crises unfold.
They also lead training sessions and large-scale mock drills, and contribute to building preparedness among various stakeholders involved in the city's emergency response system.
By addressing a pay structure that had remained static since the roles were first introduced, the government's move is aimed at bringing compensation more in line with the responsibilities these personnel shoulder in Delhi's disaster preparedness machinery.
Officials indicated that the long-pending revision reflects an effort to recognise the specialised, high-stakes nature of the work, even though the posts sit outside conventional civil service pay categories.
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