SME Times News Bureau | 24 Nov, 2011
The union home ministry Wednesday approved the proposed trifurcation of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said on Wednesday.

"The home minister (P. Chidambaram) has given approval to the split of the MCD by signing the file," she told reporters after a meeting with Chidambaram.

Dikshit was accompanied by all her cabinet ministers.

Besides amending the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, the state government also proposes to reserve 50 percent of the constituencies in the new civic units for women.

She also said that a cabinet meeting will be held Thursday, where a call will be taken on convening a special assembly session to split the civic agency into three bodies.

Dikshit contended the step would help improve functioning of the agency, which looks after 95 percent of the city's area.

The state cabinet had in June cleared a bill envisaging the division of the civic agency by amending the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957.

"The home minister has asked the chief minister to call the special session at her convenience," a state minister told IANS.

The approval has come as a shot in the arm for Dikshit-led government that wanted the the completion of the process of MCD trifurcation before the municipal elections scheduled in April 2012.

The move faced stiff opposition from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which controls the civic agency, as well as some Congress leaders in the MCD.

The government had sent its proposal to home ministry in June to which it gave an in- principle last week and sent the file to law ministry.

The law ministry had also communicated its approval to the home ministry.

The central government had asked the Delhi government's suggestion on the administrative structure, sharing of tax revenue and coordination among the proposed three bodies.

Delhi Mayor Rajni Abbi of the BJP also met Chidambaram and objected to the proposal to split of the civic agency. The mayor had also written a letter to Congress president.

The MCD is the largest civic agency in India and the second biggest in Asia, after the Tokyo local agency, in terms of geographical area, according to its spokesman.

The civic agency serves 95 percent of Delhi's land area and provides services to 98 percent of its population.

Currently, there are 272 wards in the MCD.

The proposal suggests that there will be three civic bodies - north, south and east.
While the corporation of north and south will have 104 wards each, there will be 64 wards in east Delhi.

Both North and South Delhi municipality will have 26 assembly constituencies each while the 16 assembly segments will come under the East Delhi municipality.