The Union cabinet on Tuesday gave its nod to present a bill for the unification of three municipal corporations in Delhi, “The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022”. The central government will present the bill in the Parliament during the ongoing budget session 2022. Delhi Municipal Corporation was trifurcated into three municipal corporations including South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) in the year 2011, as per Delhi Municipal Corporation Amendment Act, 1911 (Delhi Act, 12 Of 2011).
Earlier, State Election Commissioner S.K. Srivastava informed that the Centre has deferred the announcement of polling dates for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) election after the central government raised a few issues that are yet to be legally examined by the Election Commission. He also informed that the Centre is planning to “unify” the three civic bodies and hence did not announce the poll schedule.
The trifurcation of the corporation was uneven in terms of the territorial divisions and revenue-generating potential of each corporation. As a result, there was a huge gap in the resources available to the three corporations, vis-a-vis their obligations.
The gap has widened over a period of time, increasing the financial difficulties of the three Municipal Corporations, leaving them incapacitated to make timely payment of salaries and retirement benefits to their employees and thereby creating serious impediments in maintaining civic services in Delhi.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the State Election Commission to conduct municipal elections in Delhi in a free, fair and expeditious manner, without any interference from the Central government. The plea was filed after the Delhi State Election Commission indefinitely deferred the MCD elections citing a communication from the Lt. Governor conveying that the Centre was intending to pass legislation to merge the trifurcated Municipal Corporations of Delhi. The petition filed by AAP and its leaders Ankush Narang and Manoj Kumar Tyagi sought to conduct municipal elections in Delhi according to the initially conceived schedule of the State Election Commission before the expiry of the tenure of the Municipal Corporations of Delhi, in May 2022. “The brazen influence of the Government of India over the State Election Commission and its flagrant meddling with the conduct of Municipal Elections forms the subject matter of this writ petition,” stated the plea filed through advocate Shadan Farasat.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) whether it can provide electronic voting machines (EVM) with VVPATs (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) to the state election commission to conduct upcoming municipal elections. Justice Rekha Palli asked the ECI’s counsel to take instructions on this aspect and also asked its officers concerned to be present before 24 March for assisting it. The court’s observation came after counsel representing the State Election Commission submitted that “we have no objection in using the machines with paper trails if avails”. The AAP has recently moved Delhi High Court seeking court’s direction to State Election Commission, Delhi not to conduct the upcoming elections for the Municipal Corporations of Delhi with M-2 EVMs without VVPAT and use such EVMs instead which are compatible with VVPAT. The petitioner AAP through its MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj stated that the EVMs without the VVPAT machines make it almost impossible to ascertain the accuracy of the machines and rule out any tampering. The use of the old M-2 EVMs without VVPAT is in contravention of the express directions issued by the Supreme Court in the Subramanian Swamy vs Election Commission case which emphatically recognized that the incorporation and implementation of a system of paper trail in EVMs is an indispensable requirement of free and fair elections, stated the plea.