Delhi mayor to Chidambaram: Prevent MCD trifurcation

Delhi Mayor Rajni Abbi has once again urged Union home minister P Chidambaram to prevent the MCD from being split into three smaller corporations as proposed by the Delhi government.

"We have not come across any city any where in the country which has three municipalities within the territorial jurisdiction of a single city. It is a unique proposal and has to be approached with due care and consideration," reads the letter.

She further said that no one else in the city except chief minister Sheila Dikshit is in favour of the division of MCD.

She said Delhi is a homogenous city with a single culture and development base and any territorial division of the MCD will kill the concept of the MCD, as was envisaged by Parliament while enacting the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act.

Abbi said there is nothing in the DMC Act which empowers the Centre or Delhi Government to change the prescribed boundaries of the corporations.

In the letter, the Mayor has reiterated that the proposed municipal corporations will not be financially viable as currently the civic body's entire income is equally divided for equitable development across the entire city. "It needs to be underlined that the two zones of MCD in trans-Yamuna area contribute to 10% of the income from property tax whereas over one third of Delhi's population lives there. The largest of MCD's zones, Najafgarh, contributes to 2.97% of income and the second largest, Narela, contributes to 2.12% of income," said Abbi.

In May, an MCD delegation led by Abbi had met Chidambaram to apprise him of the ill effects of trifurcating the civic agency, which represents 99% of the city's population besides 96% area of the city.