Bill to unify MCDs sails through stormy House

The Bill will now be sent for presidential assent before it is notified into a law, a process that will subsume the North, East and South Delhi municipal corporations into the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and kick-start a process of redrawing municipality wards at a time when elections to these were originally due.

Parliament passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 to unify three civic bodies of the national capital with the Rajya Sabha approving on Tuesday the legislation with a voice vote, following strong protests from opposition parties who called it an attack on federalism — an allegation Union home minister Amit Shah sharply denied.

Opposition parties, in line with their position in the Lower House, attacked the government for allegedly undermining the federal structure of the country and passing a Bill they said was unconstitutional and interfered with impending elections. (ANI file photo)

The Bill will now be sent for presidential assent before it is notified into a law, a process that will subsume the North, East and South Delhi municipal corporations into the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and kick-start a process of redrawing municipality wards at a time when elections to these were originally due.

The home minister reiterated the position he took in the Lok Sabha, which cleared the Bill on March 30, that the Bill was required since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government had given “stepmotherly” treatment to the civic bodies, and the 2012 move to split the erstwhile MCD led to more problems than solutions.

“Ten years on, the experience states that despite what intentions may have been behind separating the three corporations, and even though it may have been intended for the good, the result shows otherwise,” Shah said.

Opposition parties, in line with their position in the Lower House, attacked the government for allegedly undermining the federal structure of the country and passing a Bill they said was unconstitutional and interfered with impending elections. They wanted the Bill to be sent to a standing committee.

The Union minister dismissed the criticism saying that if the parties were confident that they have done good work, then work will speak for itself irrespective when elections are held. He also allayed concerns on delays, saying the elections would take place on time. He also defended the broader prerogative to legislate on the issue, saying parliament had the constitutional right to bring the Bill.

Shah defended his stance with a four-pronged approach, stating that there are multiple disparities because of the division in terms of policies, treatment of workers, services available to the citizens and development. “Each MCD is implementing different policies and after evaluating all records, I can say that at least two of these cannot be sustained economically,” he said.

He stressed that there is a need to restructure and change policies to ensure that the benefits of development can reach all sections of society. He then slammed chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s government and previous regimes for treating Delhi like a “stepchild”. “The Delhi government has treated Delhi with a sauteli ma jaisa (stepmotherly) attitude,” he said.

Shah highlighted the strikes undertaken by people, who experienced a serious disparity in accessing services, and said: “We need better coordination and for that we need to unify the national capital to provide a conducive environment for overall development,” he said.

AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh hit back at the home minister during the debate, calling the draft law “Arvind Kejriwal phobia bill”.

“BJP was in power for seven years and was ruling MCD for 15 years, why not do this then? Why this was done on the eve of when election dates were to be announced, which was stopped by sending a letter to the Election Commission,” he questioned, describing the series of events in the moments before a state election commission announcement of civic elections as an attack on the poll panel’s independence.

Last week, Kejriwal said the Delhi government will study the Bill and if needed, challenge it in court.

AAP MLA Atishi on Tuesday said BJP-led union government allocates adequate funds to other municipal corporations in the country, but not to the MCD. “Be it Mumbai, Chennai or Ghaziabad, every civic body gets funds as per the rate of ₹488 per person but MCD is given a step motherly treatment. As per Delhi’s population MCD should get at least ₹730 crores from Centre; strangely they refuse to do so despite ruling both governments (Centre and municipal corporations),” Atishi told reporters.

She said that the AAP government has repeatedly given loans to BJP-ruled MCD. “The North MCD owes ₹3,600 crores, East MCD owes ₹1,940 crores, South MCD owes ₹1,322 crores to the Delhi Government,” Atishi said.

Congress Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who opened the debate after the Bill was tabled by Shah, too, opposed the move and asked the Centre to clarify on how the unification of the three civic bodies will solve its pressing problem of lack of funds.

“You talk of unification, but you don’t talk of non-remittance of central government funds, corruption in MCD, mountains of garbage, deficit of 2,000 crore that the three civic bodies are facing. What improvement will this Bill bring?”

Singhvi attacked the Bill for being unconstitutional, legally untenable, administratively problematic and political. On the constitutional validity, the Congress member said that while Article 239AA gives Parliament the power to make laws on same subject as states, other provisions also give states the legislative prerogative over municipalities.

Shah denied that the move meant there was a similar risk with other states — a concern several parties expressed during the previous debate in Lok Sabha — and pointed to the national capital’s status as a Union territory.

BJP’s Sudhanshu Trivedi also defended the Bill. “This bill is in keeping with the constitution, despite the opposition’s protests. The government has introduced the bill in keeping with constitutional values,” he said. “Those who have most violated the constitution are the ones calling this bill unconstitutional.”

Trivedi also slammed for treating Delhi and its citizens in an “unfair manner”.

Several members moved amendments but these were either rejected or withdrawn. AAP’s Singh also sought a division of votes but his request was denied.

The MCD was split into three in 2011 after the Delhi assembly, at the time controlled by Congress, passed a Bill for its trifurcation. The Bill was subsequently approved by then President Pratibha Patil, following which the Delhi government at the time issued a notification splitting the MCD into the East Delhi municipal corporation, the South Delhi municipal corporation and the North Delhi municipal corporation in early 2012.

Delhi’s MCD elections were scheduled to be held in April and the state election commission had planned to announce the poll schedule on March 9, but deferred it at the last minute citing a communication from the Lieutenant Governor, who reports to the Centre, that the Union government is planning to reunify the three MCDs.

The Bill also whittles down the number of wards from 272 to 250 at present, which will require the redrawing of these. Delhi’s municipal ward boundaries were last redrawn between 2016 and 2017 and the process took around 16 months. Till elections are completed, the unified MCD will in the interim be under a “special officer” appointed by the Centre.