The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which seeks to unify the three municipal corporations of Delhi into one.
Moving the Bill, Home Minister Amit Shah said 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,” said Shah, adding that when there are no reasons it can be assumed that it may have been done due to political reasons.
The analyses from 2012 to 2022 made this Government come to a conclusion that the corporations must be combined into one, Shah said. Delhi MCD was divided into three municipal corporations during Sheila Dikshit’s tenure in 2011.
Shah accused the AAP-led Delhi Government of nurturing a “step-motherly” attitude towards the municipal corporations and due to this they are struggling with inadequate resources to carry out their responsibilities.
Shah first attacked the AAP Government while moving the Bill and in his reply attacked the TMC for political violence against rivals and said the BJP wanted to fight and win polls everywhere on basis of its ideology, programmes, leadership’s popularity and performance of the Government.
Asserting that the Delhi municipal corporations were trifurcated in a “hurry”, the Home Minister said the three bodies run on different policies, there is no coordination between workers and due to this anomaly, dissatisfaction has also been found among them. “When resources and responsibilities were trifurcated, it was done without much thinking. One corporation will be in surplus while the other two will have less income and more liability,” he said. Due to this, problems arise and the elected members face a lot of issues, Shah said.
The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill seeks to unify the three municipal corporations into a single, integrated and well-equipped entity to ensure a robust mechanism for synergised and strategic planning and optimal utilisation of resources, Shah said. The Bill was passed by a voice vote and various amendments moved by the Opposition members were rejected.
“I want to say with responsibility...The Delhi Government is working with a step-motherly attitude towards the municipal corporations. Step motherly treatment is being meted out because of which the municipal corporations are not finding themselves equipped with adequate resources to carry out their responsibilities,” Shah said.
From a strategic and cooperative point of view also, it would be appropriate to have only one municipal corporation taking care of the civic services of Delhi, he asserted.
Shah pointed out that there are also amendments in the bill to ensure that the corporation is run with transparency and efficiency, and it also limits the number of councillors to 250.
Later replying to the debate, Shah targetted the TMC. “I want to say that on the basis of our programmes, ideology, the popularity of leadership and the performance of our Government, we want to fight polls and win everywhere. But we don’t want to grab power by killing workers of rival parties, carrying out a series of murders, by raping wives and daughters of (rival) party workers. This is not our culture.”
