Municipal Corporation of Delhi: From Trifurcation to Unification

Among the governance experts, it has been generally agreed that smaller administrative units make the government more accessible to ordinary people. Economists, too, have found that smaller states have performed better. However, we are witnessing the opposite being proposed by the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, tabled by the union home minister. Such an exceptional proposal, likely to be an act, demands an explanation.

To recall the history, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was trifurcated by the Sheela Dixit government in 2012. Although dividing the MCD into smaller units was expected to improve governance, what employees of the organisation and the ordinary people witnessed was a massive decline in its functioning. In the last 10 years, there has hardly been any achievement that could be celebrated. The current bill was tabled in Parliament with a powerful and convincing speech delivered by the home minister. In his eloquent defence of the bill, he questioned the justification behind the trifurcation and counted the failure of this idea on the grounds of administrative efficiency and financial viability. He argued that one of the consequences of the trifurcation was the significant administrative anomalies caused by different laws legislated by these municipal bodies, which resulted in serious confusion for people residing in the city. Another remarkable anomaly indicated pertains to finances, as one of the corporations had a lot of money and the other two were almost strapped for funds. This happened due to the differences in the economic activities in these regions. He also suggested that the trifurcation was a misuse of public money as it required three different sets of administrative infrastructure.