Will Centre be able to govern 272 wards when it couldn't govern 100?

New delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notification for the unification of three municipal corporations of Delhi into a single entity with effect from May 22. With this, the South, North, and East MCD are now treated as one Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

Process of coming into action

The three civic bodies have been merged into one MCD through the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022.

This bill to amalgamate was approved by the Lok Sabha on March 30 and by the Rajya Sabha on April 5. The bill became an Act after President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to it on April 18.

The Act reduces the number of wards in Delhi to 250 from the existing 272, which means that the MCD will have to undergo a delimitation exercise before the election. The Centre will form a delimitation commission to carry out the demarcation of wards. IAS officer Ashwini Kumar and Gyanesh Bharti are now the civic body's special officer and commissioner, respectively.

Was it required?

The trifurcation of the erstwhile MCD was uneven in terms of territorial divisions and revenue generating potential. The three municipal corporations were socially and economically very different. South Delhi has the most affluent areas and its vast property tax base is now no longer available to the less fortunate North and East corporations. The experiment of smaller corporations has had mixed results. Over the last six years, the two corporations have faced dozens of strikes by sanitation workers, doctors, teachers, and other staff over non-payment of salaries.

A large population of the East MCD region's population lives in unplanned, unauthorised areas and contribute very little to direct revenue.

What lies ahead

The central government believes that an integrated, well-equipped entity would be better to manage, as administrative expenses will be reduced. The bill ends the new municipal body's dependence on the Delhi Government for funds and the MCD would directly be governed by the central government.

All the liabilities, employees, revenue sources are now transferred to it. The main purpose is to cope up with the increasing financial difficulties which left MCDs incapable of making timely salary and retirement benefits for their employees.

Concern of opposition parties

First, how will the Centre manage to govern 272 wards when it couldn't govern 100 wards in smaller corporations for the past 15 years? Next is the inaccurate division of resources where South has more resources as compared to North. AAP also believes that this is an intervention to disturb the functioning of a democratic conduct, delayed elections are distributing the momentum of their victory chances. NCP leader Supriya Sule, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi and Arvind Sawant of Shiv Sena were some other leaders who opposed this unification by accusing the central government of neglecting larger issues of concern. The forthcoming MCD election will definitely make it clear who they wish for.