The suspense is over. The Centre gave the nod to chief minister Sheila Dikshit’s plans to split the Municipal Corporation of Delhi into three entities with 50% reservation for women across 272 municipal wards in the run-up to the local polls, scheduled for April 2012. The chief minister, along with all six Delhi cabinet ministers, met Union home minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday. While the state government’s objective of gaining greater control over municipal bodies, often seen as a separate power centre, has been achieved, the Centre has ensured a foothold for itself as well with the authority to appoint commissioners to the new corporations. The Centre has also got the city government to settle for a director of municipal affairs as coordinator instead of the initial proposal to set up an overarching Delhi municipal authority. This indicates that while the state government has gained powers, it has had to share the pie as well. With politics seen to be the chief driver for the decision, the jury is still out on whether the new arrangement will improve the sluggish MCD’s delivery of services, and reduce inefficiencies and corruption. While the corporation had become a behemoth, the possibility of its successor entities being no better has had critics of the move worried. North-Central and South corporations will cover 26 assembly seats each, East 16 . Each corporation to have a mayor and commissioner, as well as its own house . CM fulfils aim of neutralizing MCD as separate power centre but move may not necessarily bring rewards in civic polls .
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