NEW DELHI: While the state unit of the BJP welcomed the passing of the unified MCD bill in the upper House terming it a “historic milestone”, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress said that it was just a way of deferring civic elections in the city by the ruling party to “suit its own ambitions”.
Soon after the bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha, Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta posted a video message on Twitter where he said, “We hail the passing of the unification bill. It will help bring reforms in the civic bodies and strengthen their functioning in every way. It will help save resources, which has been a major concern. We will be able to spend more on upgrading civic infrastructure and providing better civic services to people. Besides, it will benefit employees, whose monthly dues had been delayed several times during this period,” said Gupta.
He also attacked the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government saying that while the latter had held the funds “due” to the civic bodies, the BJP will now go to people to make them aware of how unification will help address the civic issues that they had been facing so far.
Also, senior BJP leaders said that now that the bill has been passed and after being signed by the President will go for gazette notification, it is likely that by April 18, all the three Houses will be dissolved and a special officer will be appointed to run a unified MCD till elections are held early next year.
“The Houses are likely to be dissolved by April 18, as this is the time (third week of April) when usually the election of the mayor is notified. Now, since that will not be the case anymore, the Houses will have to be dissolved around this time anyway,” said a senior BJP leader.
The unification bill document states that a special officer can be appointed by the Centre to run the MCD for “a period of one year”. AAP municipal affairs in-charge Durgesh Pathak said that even though the BJP has delayed the elections indefinitely through this, it is still not going to give better services to people.