NEW DELHI: The BJP-led Centre is likely to bring up a bill seeking “reunification” of the three municipal corporations in the national capital in the upcoming extended winter session of the Parliament.
The Centre had on March 9, just ahead of a press conference of the State Election Commission (SEC) to announce the dates of the civic polls due in April, sent a communication to the State Election commissioner S K Srivastava that it is considering to “reunify” the three civic bodies and hence not to announce the poll schedule.
Senior party leaders said the central leadership has been mulling presenting the bill to reunify the corporations in the upcoming Parliament session, which is to commence from March 14. “Reunifying the corporations is easier than it was to trifurcate them. The Centre will most likely repeal the act, by the amendment of which the three bodies came into being. They will present a bill for their reunification, which has been a long-standing demand of the state unit, as the corporations have been struggling for funds,” said a senior BJP leader, who didn’t wish to be named.
Senior officials in the SEC too said the Centre was planning to present the bill regarding reunification in the upcoming Parliament session. “We got to know that they are considering bringing the bill. We had to wait to examine the proposal. We have sought legal opinion and awaiting a response. It requires a lot of
paperwork and consultation,” said a senior official.
Another senior BJP functionary said the civic bodies will also explore extending the mayor’s term. “At present, the term of the mayor is one year, which rotates every year with a reserved category candidate and a woman candidate and so on. The party may also consider extending the term of the mayor to over two years to let the person at the position have more understanding,” said the senior leader.
The erstwhile MCD was trifurcated in 2012 by the then Congress government led by Sheila Dikshit, in an attempt to make inroads into the civic bodies, which had become a BJP bastion, as well as to dilute the powers of a single powerful mayor in the city. The Delhi Municipal Act, 1957 was amended by the Parliament in 2012 to trifurcate the unified MCD.