Parliament Passes Bill To Merge Three Municipal Corporations of Delhi

The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, paves the way for the merger of Delhi's three municipal corporations -- north, south and east -- into one.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah (File photo: AFP)

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, with voice vote. The bill paves the way for the merger of Delhi's three municipal corporations -- north, south and east -- into one.

Presenting the bill in the Rajya Sabha, Union Home Minister Amit Shah accused the ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi of giving step-motherly treatment to the three civic bodies.

Due to the behavior of AAP, the three corporations of Delhi are not working properly and the number of strikes has increased, Amit Shah said.

"The number of strikes have gone up due to the step-motherly treatment by the AAP," he alleged.

"Delhi government's step-motherly treatment hinders the efficient working of all three municipal bodies ...If state/UT governments behave in a stepmotherly fashion with civic bodies, neither Panchayati Raj nor urban local bodies will be successful," he said in Rajya Sabha.

Delhi Govt's step-motherly behaviour hinders efficient working of all 3 MCDs...If State/UT Govts behave in a step-motherly fashion with civic bodies, neither Panchayati Raj nor urban local bodies will be successful: HM on Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in RS pic.twitter.com/1jstXa6QQy

— ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2022

While introducing Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in the Rajya Sabha, Shah said, "Ten years have passed, and the experience has been different. When the civic body was trifurcated, the objective must have been good: to give better services to residents. But this has not been the result," he said.

Listing the reasons behind this, he said, "The policies adopted by the three civic bodies are different. In the same city, there is no uniformity in policies. This is because when the civic bodies were trifurcated, their economic resources and responsibilities were not assessed properly."

The Home Minister said he will put forward "solid reasons" and numbers in support of his statement. "State government must rise above political considerations to give civic bodies their due," he added.