No proposal to merge Capital’s trifurcated civic bodies: Govt

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government on Wednesday informed the Rajya Sabha that no proposal had been sent by any of the three civic bodies in the Capital for merging the trifurcated Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) into a single municipal corporation.

“The government of NCT of Delhi has informed that no such proposal has been from the north, south and east Delhi municipal corporations,” said minister of state for home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary in a written reply to a question.

The erstwhile unified MCD was trifurcated into three bodies -- north, south, and east corporations in 2012. HARIBHAI CHAUDHARY, minister of state for home

Some quarters have been demanding the unification of the municipal bodies back into one unit.

The cash-strapped EDMC has been running into huge losses and trifurcation has often been attributed as one of the causes.

To a question on financial assistance, the minister said, “As on March 13, EDMC requires `1,002.79 crore and NDMC requires `1,388 crore to tide over their financial crunch. No request has been sent by SDMC to the government of NCT of Delhi. No recommendation for financial assistance to municipal corporations has been received by the government of Delhi,” he said.

“However, a reference in this regard was received from the EDMC and the same was forwarded to the government (of Delhi) for necessary action,” he added.

The minister said no committee has been constituted by any of the three corporations to go into the whole issue of unification.