Frequent strikes by employees due to non-payment of salary and unequal distribution of assets and liabilities leading to imbalance of income and expenditures of municipal corporations are the reasons to integrate the three entities in Delhi, the Centre has stated. It was this communiqué to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi that led to the deferment of the announcement of the date of the municipal corporation polls by the State Election Commission.
“There is an urgent need to take corrective measures to ensure efficiency in management of affairs of corporations. The Central Government is examining the matter in totality including the possibility of reorganising the municipal corporations and their integration,” the Ministry of Home Affairs said in the communiqué.
The MHA said the trifurcation of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in 2011 might have resulted in unequal distribution of assets and liabilities coupled with increase in officers and overhead expenditures leading to inefficiency and imbalance of income and expenditures of corporations.
“As a result there have been frequent incidents of strike by various groups of employees due to non-payment of salary and terminal benefits affecting the delivery of essential municipal services. This in totality has entailed extreme hardship and inconvenience to the citizens of the NCT of Delhi and public at large due to inherent inefficiencies and sluggishness which has perpetrated in the working of the MCD established by amendment act of 2011,” reads the communiqué.
“Since elections to the MCD are due shortly, it would be prudent that the State Election Commission may be apprised that the Central government , in accordance with provisions contained in Article 239 AA of the Constitution and other provisions connected therewith in the Constitution or in other legal statutes , is contemplating to bring in the aforesaid integration of the three municipal corporations existing in NCT of Delhi”.
“Further, in view of the aforesaid exercise in contemplation, the State Election Commission may also be requested to keep on hold the election process due in the aforesaid Municipal Corporations, as initiation of election process in the existing facts and circumstances will not only lead to an unnecessary and avoidable financial burden on the public exchequer but will also frustrate and result in ‘fate accompli’, of the whole process of integration which is intended to obviate the existing system which is precipitating extreme hardships on the citizens of NCT of Delhi for the reasons stated above,’ the communiqué said.
In 2012, the then Sheila Dikshit government had trifurcated the MCD, which was the second largest civic body in the world after Tokyo Metropolitan Area, into a number of smaller units so that it could serve the people better. Three municipal corporations – the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North DMC), and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) were created. MCD cumulatively provided services to 97% of Delhi’s population across 272 municipal wards.
There were 12 administrative zones under MCD out of which SDMC got four (Centre, South, West, and Najafgarh); North DMC got Rohini, Civil Lines, Karol Bagh, City Sadar Paharganj, Keshavpuram and Narela; and EDMC Shahdara North and Shahdara South.
As per reports, more than seven million work hours were lost due to several strikes by the municipal staff to protest against non-payment of salaries in 2021. The municipal staff went on strike on ten different occasions last year. It was mostly the staff of North Delhi Municipal Corporation that protested against the delayed salaries. The East MCD staff went on a strike just once, on December 23, and the South MCD workers did not stage any protest.
The data shows the longest protest took place between November 29 and December 31 by 1200 employees of North MCD leading to loss of 316,800 work hours. In terms of the participation of employees, the biggest protest was held between January 6 and 21, in which 52,000 employees were involved and led to a loss of 6,656,000 work hours. Civic officials explained that the work hours lost was calculated on the basis of total man days lost multiplied by 8, the number of official working hours.