LS approves Bill to reunify Delhi’s MCDs after 10 years

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which seeks to reunify the Capital’s three municipal corporations, with Union home minister Amit Shah defending the move on the grounds that the trifurcated bodies had not achieved their goal, and alleging that the Delhi government was meting out “stepmotherly treatment” to the civic agencies.

The Bill was passed following a lengthy debate during which several opposition MPs accused the Centre of thwarting the civic elections and attacking the federal separation of powers — allegations the home minister denied.

“Those who are saying that MCD polls have been postponed due to fear of polls, are themselves scared. If you are so confident of the victory then why do you want elections right now? If you have done good work, you will win six months later too,” he said in his reply to the debate.

Shah added that Bill could only be brought now since the term of the three councils was ending.

He said proposed changes were meant to bring more transparency to the functioning of the agencies and allow for better citizen services, adding that the trifurcation of the MCD was done in a hurry for political reasons, which lead to an imbalance between the income and liabilities of the civic bodies. “I tried to look for the reasons for the trifurcation, scoured through files but could not find anything on it,” he said, adding that it was done for political reasons. The legislation was introduced weeks before elections to the Capital’s three civic bodies were set to be held in April. These polls will now be pushed back since the law proposes to redraw municipality wards and cut the number of council seats to 250, a process that could take months.

The Bill was opposed by members of the Congress, DMK, Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena, BSP, the Indian Union Muslim League and the YSR Congress. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which currently has three members in the Rajya Sabha does not have any member in the Lower House after former Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann resigned to take over as Punjab CM.