New Delhi: MCD will finally be trifurcated
with Delhi Assembly passing a bill to this effect on Thursday amid
pandemonium created by BJP MLAs who demanded full statehood
for the national capital.
The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, which
also provides for transfer of some powers to city government
in overseeing functioning of the new bodies as well as giving
approval to rules and by-laws framed by them, was passed
through voice vote.
The passage of the bill came as BJP MLAs trooped to the
Well demanding statehood for Delhi. Amidst sloganeering, the
bill was put to voice vote and declared passed.
Earlier, replying to the debate on the issue, Chief
Minister Sheila Dikshit described the trifurcation as a
"historic moment" and expressed hope that it will lead to
improvement in civic amenities.
"The government could have split the MCD three years ago
(when we returned to power). We did not do it then as there
may be criticism that we did it because MCD was ruled by BJP.
Now we are doing it because the term of this MCD is getting
over," Dikshit said.
Criticising the government for not taking adequate steps
to get full statehood for Delhi, Leader of Opposition VK
Malhotra said, "The trifurcation of MCD is for political
reasons."
Accepting a long-standing demand of Dikshit, the Home
Ministry had last week approved the bill giving the go-ahead
to Delhi government to trifurcate MCD ahead of civic polls in
April next year.
After approval by the Assembly, the Bill will be sent to
President Pratibha Patil for her assent.
As per the proposal, the new civic bodies in North and
South Delhi will have 104 wards each while the civic body in
East Delhi will have 64 wards and a directorate of municipal
services would be set up to coordinate functioning of the
three new bodies.
The Centre has also approved the proposal for increasing
reservation of seats for women in the civic body to 50 per
cent from the current 33 per cent.
In pushing for trifurcation of MCD, Dikshit had to face
opposition from within Congress with several leaders even
going to party chief Sonia Gandhi to complain against the
move.
PTI
