Gears turning, MCDS to merge tomorrow

NEW DELHI: As the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi comes into existence from Sunday, marking an end to a decade old trifurcation experiment of decentralisation of urban local governance in the Capital, the special officer and commissioner, appointed by the Centre on Friday, will have a busy couple of months as several challenges -- setting uniform regulations and tax regimes, and tackling the crippling financial crisis, among others -- lie ahead for the new administration.

The Centre on Friday appointed Ashwani Kumar, a 1992 batch IAS officer, as the “special officer”, and sitting South MCD commissioner Gyanesh Bharti, a 1998 batch officer, as the new commissioner of the unified entity. The two will hold the executive and deliberative powers for shaping up one of the largest corporations of the world in the coming months.

The municipal corporation consists of an elected deliberative wing of councillors, headed by the mayor, and an executive wing of municipal officials headed by the commissioner. Till the delimitation exercise -- to reset municipal ward boundaries -- is conducted, elections are held and the new corporation is constituted, the special officer will hold all the powers of the elected wing, the act passed by the Parliament mandates.

New appointments

Experts, retired officials and civic functionaries feel that the two officers will first need to take steps to give a proper chain of command to the unified MCD by appointing department heads, allocate and shift offices, and bring uniformity in regulation and tax structures, in addition to tackling the ongoing financial crisis in the municipal corporations -- a key reason cited by the Centre for the MCD merger.

“A series of appointments, transfers and orders to bring uniformity in regulations and fees across the city will have to be followed,” said a senior municipal law officer.

The three MCDS have variations in fees and taxes for licenses and services, which will have to be made uniform by the incoming special officer and commissioner. Several civic functionaries expect confusion in the initial days as they feel that the civic bodies have done minimal preparation for the reunification.

Former municipal chief law officer Anil Gupta said that the first step will be to appoint the heads of major departments like engineering, education, sanitation and public health, among others, to continue the normal operation of these critical services. “The deputy commissioner of the 12 zones can be changed later but departments require immediate appointments. The unified MCD had six additional commissioners but currently, there are 10 additional commissioners. So some will have to be transferred. A municipal secretary, who acts a link between the deliberative and executive wing, will be appointed immediately to maintain the structure of the corporation,” Gupta said.

Ensuring uniformity

Over the last 10 years, the three MCDS have brought about several changes in the operating regulations and tax regime of the civic bodies -- including licenses for factory and eateries; property taxes and even payments for catching monkeys -- which will have to be revised and made uniform by the special officer in the coming months.

For example, a senior public health department official said, the south corporation issues annual licenses to eateries for ₹25,000, North MCD for ₹1,000 and EDMC for ₹5,000. Additionally, unlike South MCD, the other two corporations do not charge 1% education cess.

“It may take one-two months to regularise the rates, during which time people will naturally wait... This may bring revenue collection to halt for some time,” the official said.

Civic officials are certain that the headquarters of the unified MCD will remain at the Civic Centre on Minto Road. Currently, North and South MCD offices are located at Civic Center and EDMC operates from Patparganj industrial area. The common headquarters is likely to put an end to a ₹2,900 crore rent sharing controversy between North and South MCDS. “A common establishment schedule will be formed by the central establishment department and orders for these series of appointments will be issued by the commissioner of the unified body. An order will also be issued regarding the new municipal headquarters and office space allocation,” added Gupta.

Over the last month, the central establishment department of SDMC, which has held a series of meeting with the officials from all three corporations to chalk out the broad modalities of the merger, had initially estimated that around 700 posts will have to be surrendered through the merger as three sets of head of departments, committees, mayors will be merged into a single set of posts. “The report was not finalised and some of the data from the hospital wing of North MCD was not provided. The special officer will have to take this decision,” an official from the department said.

Kumar and Bharti will also have to tackle the ongoing financial crisis. It remains unclear if the unified MCD will be funded by Delhi government, Centre or both. East and North MCD have salary pendency of five months and three months respectively and there is a collective liability over ₹16,000 crore.

Under the existing arrangement, the municipal commissioner is allowed to take decisions and approve projects up to ₹5 crore, while those above ₹5 crore will be sent to the standing committee and house of councillors for approval. Currently, since elections are yet to be held, the special officer will take calls on the projects above ₹5 crore.

THE 3 MCDS HAVE BROUGHT ABOUT SEVERAL CHANGES IN THE OPERATING REGULATIONS AND TAX REGIME OF THE CIVIC BODIES WHICH WILL HAVE TO BE MADE UNIFORM NOW