The Municipal Corporation of Delhi was established way back in 1958 for maintaining and developing the city. However, on 13 January 2012, it was trifurcated into 3 different municipalities – North Delhi Municipal Corporation, South Delhi Municipal Corporation and East Delhi Municipal Corporation. The trifurcation was done in order to allocate funds correctly and develop all parts of Delhi equally.
The trifurcation had hoped to bring better administration facilities over such a large city. But on the contrary, several issues related to finance was cropping up here and there. The trifurcation resulted in financial constraints that made payment of salaries and retirement benefits to workers difficult. Also, the utilization of resources was not adequately made across all the regions as was hoped on trifurcation.
Hence, early this year, the MCD reunification bill was passed, which seeks to reunite the 3 Municipal Corporations into one Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). On 22 March, the Union Government approved the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill to merge the 3 municipal corporations back to a single body. The Lok Sabha passed the Bill on 30 March 2022, while it was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 5 April 2022.
After the President approved the bill on 19 April 2022, the reunification process was complete by 22 May 2022. The MCD bill also called for a delimitation process, which would reduce the number of wards in Delhi from 272 to 250. The delimitation process began soon after the reunification and was concluded on 19 October 2022.
Now, the stage is all set to welcome new members in the Delhi Municipal Corporation. MCD underwent its first election after the merger on 4 December 2022. BJP, Congress and AAP are contesting the MCD elections for its 250 seats. Of the 250 seats, 42 seats are reserved for scheduled caste (SC) category.
The total turnout for the election was 50%, which is by far less than what we expect in an election. The primary reason for this is that the north-western villages of Delhi boycotted the election as there were no development in the villages. 3 polling stations did not receive a single vote as the villagers boycotted the election, not wanting to vote for any party.
Written by – Himadri Paul