Union Home Minister Amit Shah alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government gives step-motherly treatment to three civic bodies, as he introduced the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in the Rajya Sabha.
Calling for the unification of the civic bodies, the Union Home Minister said that all three municipal bodies follow different policies.
“Delhi government’s step-motherly treatment hinders the efficient working of all three municipal bodies …If state/UT governments behave in a stepmotherly fashion with civic bodies, neither Panchayati Raj nor urban local bodies will be successful,” he said in Rajya Sabha.
The Bill which seeks amendment to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, was passed by Lok Sabha on March 30.
The Union Cabinet last month gave its nod to the Bill that proposes to merge the three BJP-led municipal bodies — North, East and South — in Delhi, ten years after the trifurcation of the civic body.
AAP VS BJP on new Bill
The Bill has become the latest flashpoint between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the AAP ahead of the high-stakes civic polls.
Opposing the Centre’s decision to unify the civic bodies, which have been under BJP’s rule for the last 15 years, Delhi’s ruling AAP said it is a “tactic” to delay the municipal polls.
Earlier, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal dared the BJP to get the civic polls conducted timely and win them. The AAP chief said that his party will quit politics if the saffron party gets these polls conducted now and wins them.
“We (the AAP) will leave politics if BJP gets the MCD polls held (timely) and wins them. The BJP says it is the biggest political party in the world but it got scared by a small party and a small election. I dare the BJP for timely MCD polls,” Kejriwal told reporters.
