The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday issued a notification for the unification of BJP-ruled three municipal corporations of Delhi (MCD) into a single entity with effect from May 22. With this, the South, North, and East MCD will be treated as one Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
According to the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022, the central government will appoint a “special officer” to run the new unified civic body until the first meeting of the corporation is held.
The term of the South DMC ended today, while the other two civic bodies — North DMC and East DMC will be completing their terms on May 19 and May 22, respectively.
The legislation to unify the three civic bodies was approved by the Lok Sabha on March 30 and by the Rajya Sabha on April 5. The legislation had become an Act after President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the bill on April 18.
With this merger, the number of municipal wards in Delhi will reduce to 250 from 272.
Elections for three MCDs were scheduled this month but were deferred on March 9 following the Centre’s communication about the merger.
This move of merging the three civic bodies had triggered a political blame game with Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) terming it a “tactic to delay the elections”.
A senior SDMC official said the deliberative wing, which is formed by the elected representatives, ceased to operate from Wednesday, but the civic body will keep performing its obligatory duties.
He said there will be no policy-making exercises in the SDMC now and the meetings of the SDMC House and the Standing Committee will also not be held.
The official said the Union home ministry will issue a separate notification for dissolving the three civic bodies and unifying them.
He said the normal functions of the municipality such as sanitation exercises and health-related services will continue to be carried out by bureaucrats.
A bill to unify the three civic bodies was approved by the Lok Sabha on March 30 and by the Rajya Sabha on April 5.
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