A committee headed by former Delhi Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta, which was constituted by the then Sheila Dikshit Government to bring a new Delhi Municipal Corporation Bill 2015 defining the powers of the Government and the three Municipal Corporations, has submitted its report to the Delhi Government.
It has recommended salary for councillors, appointment of municipal commissioners by the Delhi Government, extension of mayoral term from one year to 20 months, market borrowing powers to the corporations so that the corporations can float shares and bonds for improving their financial health, auditing of all employees after every five years, code of conduct for councillors, power to Delhi Government to appoint municipal commissioner and setting up municipal service commission.
Mehta, who is currently State Election Commissioner, that conducts municipal elections in Delhi and Chandigarh, has been asked to revisit this archaic act and bring a new law in the view of present circumstances.
Top sources told The Pioneer that a report has been submitted to the Chief Secretary KK Sharma and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia a few days ago. The new legislation contains 33 chapters and 775 clauses/sections of the Bill. The Bill has suggested that for effective function of the South, East and North municipal bodies it was necessary that their credit ratings be done on a regular basis so that they were forced to improve their work performance to raise loans for different projects. The proposed Bill has dealt at length on grant of financial independence to the three municipal bodies. It has suggested that the municipal bodies be allowed to float bonds for taking loans from financial institutions. At present, the three municipal bodies facing serious financial crunch are being governed under the archaic Municipal Corporation Act which was passed by both Houses of Parliament and assented by the President on December 28, 1957.
The Bill will need approvals from Ministry of Home Affairs, Delhi legislative Assembly and Delhi Cabinet. “Mayors of civic bodies should have fixed tenure either the term of Mayors be set as 20 months (in which the post should be held by a woman, an SC and a general candidate on a rotation basis) or five years and councillors should be given salary and other perks on the lines of other elected representatives,” said the sources.
The proposed Bill has also recommended regular manpower audit of all employees of the municipal bodies to ensure delivery of quality work. One of the key recommendations in the proposed bill is that there should be no duplication of works allocated between the city Government and the municipal bodies. The proposed Bill said that the works related to primary and public health, maternity hospitals and schools should be handled exclusively by the municipal bodies and higher education and super speciality hospitals be brought under the direct control of the Government. The Bill has recommended that there should be no overlapping of functions of the city administration and municipal bodies. It has recommended that works related to pensions and social welfare schemes should be directly under the Government.
The Bill has also recommended that the municipal bodies should have their own service commission for selection of its employees.
At present, the municipal employees are being appointed by the Delhi State Service Board (DSSB).