Bill in Lok Sabha to merge three Delhi corporations with MCD

Ignoring criticism from the AAP, the Union Home Ministry introduced the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill in Lok Sabha on Friday. The Bill aims to subsume the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation and the East Delhi Municipal Corporation with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. The Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had challenged the Centre to hold the elections to the corporations at the earliest and had said that the delay in conducting the polls is an attack on democracy.

In the statement on objects and reasons, the Union Home Ministet Amit Shah said the Act was amended by Delhi Assembly in 2011 to trifurcate the Corporation into three. He said the MCD’s trifurcation was uneven on territorial divisions and revenue generating potential. “As a result, there was huge gap in the resources available to the three corporations compared to their obligations. Over a period, the gap has only widened, increasing the financial difficulties of the three Municipal Corporations in Delhi, leaving them incapacitated to make timely payment of salaries and retirement benefits to their employees. These delays had resulted in frequent strikes by the municipal employees affecting civic services, but also created concomitant problems of cleanliness and sanitisation. Such financial constraints on these corporations resulted in inordinate delay in the fulfilment of their contractual and statutory obligations, creating serious impediments in maintaining civic services in Delhi,” Shah said.

Shah added that owing to inadequacies in resources and uncertainty in fund allocation and release, the three corporations have been facing huge financial hardships, making it difficult for them to maintain the civic services in Delhi at the desired levels. “The level and quality of delivery of municipal services in the National capital needs to be in consonance with its unique status and cannot be subjected to vagaries of financial hardship and functional uncertainties,” he claimed in the Bill.

Shah said the amended Bill seeks to unify the three municipal corporations into a single, integrated and well equipped entity, ensuring a robust mechanism for synergised and strategic planning and optimal utilisation of resources. He promised that the move will bring about greater transparency, improved governance and more efficient delivery of civic service for the people of Delhi.

The Opposition questioned the introduction of the Bill. Congress MP Manish Tewari said the Lok Sabha does not have the legislative competence to enact this Bill on the grounds that the power to constitute municipalities lies with the State Governments under Articles 243P and 243R of the Constitution. He said in this matter, local self-government institutions and their functioning falls to the remit of the Government of Delhi. “And this House cannot, after Part 9 was inserted into the Constitution of India, substitute itself for the Assembly of Delhi and pass this particular legislation in an illegal manner. This is a very serious constitutional issue. It is a transgression on the basic structure. It is a transgression on the constitutional provisions,” Tewari said opposing the introduction of the Bill. Senior MP NK Premachandran said the Bill encroaches into the legislative powers of Delhi Assembly. “This is against the federal principle of our Constitution,” he said. Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityananda Rai, who introduced the Bill, however, said the Bill is well within the Constitutional powers of the Centre and the intention is to improve the administration of the MCD.

The AAP the BJP is trying to delay the local elections in Delhi. “The BJP had used similar tactics earlier as well when President’s rule was imposed in Delhi to delay Assembly polls. However, the party was restricted to just three seats when the elections were held,” AAP leader Aitishi said.

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