Union Home Minister Amit Shah is expected to introduce the Delhi Municipal Corporation Amendment Bill in the Parliament today which seeks to unify the three municipal bodies in the national capital.
According to the key provisions of the Bill, the reunification of the three MCDs — which were trifurcated in 2012 by the then chief minister Sheila Dikshit — will give complete control of the civic body to the Centre.
Apart from replacing the word “Government” with “Central Government”, the provisions raise the prospect of a delimitation exercise, which could lead to a considerable delay in the conduct of civic body polls. And to run the corporation till then, they give the Centre the option of appointing an officer of its choice.
“Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, the Central Government may, if necessary, appoint a person to be called the Special Officer, to exercise the power and discharge the functions of the Corporation until the date on which the first meeting of the Corporation is held after the commencement of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022,” reads the Bill as quoted by The Indian Express.
The Bill also proposes that the number of seats in the unified corporation will not be more than 250 — down from the existing 272 — and will be determined by the Centre at the “central government at the time of the establishment of the Corporation”.
The carving of the erstwhile civic body into three MCDs was done in 2012 by the then chief minister Sheila Dikshit. While the Congress had asserted that it was done to “decentralise” the mammoth MCD, it was clearly a political move as the Congress eyed making inroads into the MCD, which was then a BJP bastion.
While Dikshit expected electoral gains from the trifurcation, the Congress lost the civic polls badly and the BJP got majority in all three corporations. The saffron party continues to rule the MCDs. Ten years later, it seems to be deja vu for observers, as the BJP is seeking to redraw the corporation’s boundaries for political gains.