New Delhi, Sep 12: In a setback to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's efforts, the Union Home Ministry has again returned to the Delhi government its proposal to trifurcate the MCD ahead of the next year's civic polls and sought fresh details about administrative structure and financial aspect of the proposed bodies.
The Home Ministry has sent a set of queries to the Delhi government wanting to know specifically the proposed administrative structure, financial details and how it plans to ensure proper coordination among the proposed bodies, top government sources said.
“We have received a fresh set of questions from the Home Ministry,” they said.
The city government last month had sent a fresh proposal to the Union Home Ministry making certain changes in its original proposal.
Dikshit has been strongly pushing for trifurcation of the MCD as well as increasing reservation of seats for women to 50 per cent from the current 33 per cent ahead of the next year's municipal polls.
Dikshit had to face opposition from within Congress for her proposal to split the civic body ahead of the civic polls with several Congress leaders even going to party chief Sonia Gandhi to oppose the move.
However, after much deliberation within the party and discussions with senior AICC leaders, it was decided the MCD would be split into three parts and keep the number of wards at 272.
The opposition BJP is also opposing the move tooth and nail.
Dikshit had met Home Minister P Chidambaram twice in July to request him to clear the proposal at the earliest. Last month, the city government made some amendments to its earlier proposal.
The city government envisaged setting up of a new body called Delhi Municipal Authority (DMA) to coordinate functioning of the three proposed municipalities, but the Home Ministry had objected to setting up of the authority.
Following the objection, the city government dropped its plan to set up the DMA and instead decided to create a post of director of civic bodies which will coordinate among the three municipalities.
The Home Ministry had in July sent back the proposal seeking the modification on the ground that coordination among the proposed civic bodies may be difficult in case separate parties come to power in three municipalities as well as in Delhi government.
As per the earlier proposal, the chief minister would have been the head of the DMA. Sources said the Home Ministry sought modification in the proposal to ensure proper coordination among the municipalities as well as keep their functioning free from political influence.
The MCD elections will be held early next year and Dikshit has already said that the city government wants to complete the process of division of the body ahead of polls. As per the bill, 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.
Both North and South Delhi municipality will have 26 assembly constituencies each while the 16 assembly segments will fall under the East Delhi municipality.
In April, the Delhi Cabinet had accepted recommendations of a high-level committee, headed by Health Minister A K Walia, which suggested splitting the civic body into five smaller municipalities. The panel also suggested increasing total number of wards from the current 272 to around 408. PTI
