Parliament nods Delhi MCD Amendment Bill

New Delhi: Parliament on Tuesday (April 5) passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, with the Rajya Sabha giving its nod. The Lok Sabha has already passed the bill. The Amendments moved by the opposition were also negated.

The Bill seeks to further amend the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 and proposes to unify the three existing Municipal Corporations of Delhi into one Municipal Corporation of Delhi. It envisages bringing about greater transparency, improved governance, and more efficient civic service delivery for the people of Delhi.

Replying to the discussion on the Bill, Union Home Minister Amit Shah rejected the Opposition charges saying that this Bill has been brought by following all the constitutional norms. He clarified that as Delhi is a Union Territory with separate provisions, Parliament has the right to legislate on the matters related to the ‘National Capital Territory’ of Delhi. He said the new Bill in no way encroaches upon the rights of Delhi.

Shah said that the Delhi government has not disbursed Rs 40,561 crore to the three civic bodies as per the recommendation of the 5th Delhi Finance Commission.

He said the Administrative expenditure would be reduced if all the three municipal corporations are unified, and there will be one mayor in place of three mayors in Delhi.

The Home Minister said that many important places like Rashtrapati Bhavan, Prime Minister’s House, Prime Minister’s office, Supreme Court and Embassies of countries are located in Delhi, and therefore, it is necessary that all the MCD should take up the responsibility of civic services.

He said, earlier, there was one municipal corporation in the city, but then it was trifurcated to form three corporations in 2012.

He also alleged that the Delhi government under AAP is showing step-motherly treatment to three Municipal Corporations of Delhi, and not all the corporations are equipped with sufficient resources to discharge their responsibilities.

Shah pointed out that if the State Governments deal with the local bodies with such an attitude, neither the Panchayati Raj system nor the urban local bodies will be successful.

The Home Minister asserted that from the resources, strategic and cooperative point of view, it would be appropriate to have only one municipal corporation taking care of the civic services of Delhi.

Sudhanshu Trivedi of BJP and Prasanna Acharya of BJD supported the proposal of the unification of three MCDs into one.