Demand to unify 3 municipal corporations echo in NDMC meeting

The demand for unification of the three municipal corporations here in the wake of their deteriorating financial condition was raised in the NDMC House meeting today.
"The three corporations should be unified as the municipal bodies are on the verge of bankruptcy," the chairman of standing committee of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), Mohan Bhardwaj, said in the meeting.
"The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2011, brought in for trifurcation of the MCD by the then government was aimed at deposing the BJP which ruled the municipal corporation," Bhardwaj said while presenting the revised budget estimates for 2015-16 and proposed estimates for 2016-17 for approving by the committee.

The erstwhile MCD was trifurcated into three civic bodies by the Congress government in Delhi in 2012 despite opposition by the BJP.
The autonomy of municipal corporations has been on papers only after the trifurcation of the MCD and they now function merely as a department of the Delhi government, he said.
"The Delhi government in order to run the municipal corporations through remote control is appointing its own officials violating their jurisdiction of appointment as per Section 89 of the MCD Act," he alleged.
Pointing to the poor financial condition of the civic body, Bhardwaj said, "Had the Delhi government paid the corporation its due funds, North DMC's budget loss would have been Rs 538 crore instead of Rs 1,750 crore."

As per the recommendations of the 4th Delhi Finance Commission, a total of Rs 729 crore is due from the Delhi government to the NDMC, he claimed, adding a court order for payment of these funds was testimony to this.