New Delhi: The Delhi government is meting out "step-motherly" treatment to municipal corporations in the national capital due to which they are struggling with inadequate resources for carrying out their responsibilities, Home Minister Amit Shah said in Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The Home Minister moved the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in the lower house today. The bill proposes the reunification of three municipal corporations for consideration and passage. Shah said that the trifurcation of the MCD was done in a hurry for political reasons which lead to an imbalance between the income and liabilities of the civic bodies.
Being the country's capital, Rashtrapati Bhawan, Parliament, Prime Minister's Office, central secretariats, among other important offices, are in Delhi and carrying out civic services is very important here, he said and urged the House to consider Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 rising above party politics. The Aam Aadmi Partygovernment in Delhi has been critical of the Centre's move to bring the bill a month before the elections to the three municipal corporations, claiming it was an attempt by the BJP to delay the polls as it feared defeat. The Delhi Municipal Corporation was trifurcated in 2011 by the then Delhi government led by Sheila Dikshit to create compact municipalities aimed at providing better delivery of services.
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"I tried to look for the reasons for the trifurcation, scoured through files but could not find anything on it," Shah said, adding that when there are no reasons it can be assumed that it may have been done due to political reasons. The analyses from 2012 to 2022, made this government come to a conclusion that the corporations must be combined into one, Shah said. Asserting that the corporations were trifurcated in a "hurry", the home minister said the three bodies run on different policies, there is no coordination between workers and due to this anomaly, dissatisfaction has also been found among them.
"When resources and responsibilities were trifurcated, it was not done without much thinking. One corporation will be in surplus while the other two will have less income and more liability," he said. Due to this, problems arise and the elected members face a lot of issues, Shah said. "I want to say with responsibility...the Delhi government is working with a step-motherly attitude towards the municipal corporations. Step motherly treatment is being meted out because of which the municipal corporations are not finding themselves equipped with adequate resources to carry out their responsibilities," Shah said.