New Delhi: Parliament on Tuesday passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill-2022 to unify three civic bodies in the national capital, with the Rajya Sabha giving its nod through a voice vote after negating all amendments sought by the opposition.
According to the bill, passed by Lok Sabha last week, the unification of the municipal corporations will ensure synergised and strategic planning and optimal utilisation of resources.
Replying to the discussion on the bill, Home Minister Amit Shah said it has been necessitated after the Delhi government meted out "step-motherly treatment" to the civic bodies.
Shah said that it was a mistake to trifurcate the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) into three bodies in 2012 but added that they could still have functioned normally, had the AAP-led Delhi government not treated them in such a manner.
"This bill is in no way an attack on the federal structure," Shah argued after an uproar from Opposition members, who maintained that Parliament interfering in local bodies was neither constitutional nor legal.
"Delhi is only a union territory and not a full state," Shah said, arguing that Parliament had the competence to frame laws for Delhi and that is why the Bill was brought.
Even as Aam Aam Aadmi Party MPs in Rajya Sabha claimed that the Bill was an excuse for the BJP-run Centre to evade the civic polls - which were scheduled for this year, Shah said that his party is not afraid of fighting it out with the AAP, which is still basking in the glory of its Punjab Assembly win.
But Shah added that his party is fully willing to contest the civic polls after the delimitation is done as per the Bill that was brought in.
"It is being alleged that the bill has been brought due to fear of losing elections. But if elections are held after six months, will you lose," he asked opposition members.
After the Bill was introduced in RS, CPI(M) member John Brittas had moved a proposal to refer the bill to a select committee of Rajya Sabha. Meanwhile, the Indian National Congress argued that the Centre's move to postpone the polls and unify the MCDs in this manner was "constitutionally suspect, legally untenable, administratively blunderous and politically hypocritical".
Moreover, AAP MP Sanjay Singh said that the Centre should have renamed the Bill as "Kejriwal-phobia" Bill, accusing the BJP of delaying the civic polls because it was afraid of facing AAP. During the discussion, Singh said, "This bill writes the story of your cowardice. This bill will write a story of you crushing the Constitution. This bill will write the story of you ending the Election Commission."
Moreover, in their opposition to the Bill, both the Congress and AAP agreed that the Centre had allegedly shied away from its responsibility of funding the civic bodies of Delhi, with MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi saying, "Did you as the central government give Rs 4,087 crore to the municipal corporations of Delhi (as per the Finance Commission recommendation)? You gave lots to other municipalities, but not to Delhi," he said.
Soon after the Bill was cleared, which now awaits an assent from the President, Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta welcomed the development.