As soon as the bill for the integration of corporations was introduced in the Lok Sabha, it was decided that now the corporation elections have been postponed for at least one year. At present, there are a total of 272 wards in the three municipal corporations of Delhi, North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC). Of these, there are 104 wards in North and South Municipal Corporation while 64 wards in East Delhi Municipal Corporation.
Constitution expert and former secretary of Delhi Legislative Assembly SK Sharma said that if the number of wards is reduced from the existing 272 then delimitation exercise would be required, which would take a lot of time. The administrative process for delimitation would take several months, and then public suggestions and objections would be invited. Hence, civic polls are unlikely to be held in the next five to six months. There may be further delay. Former Delhi chief secretary Rakesh Mehta also said civic polls are unlikely to be held in the coming few months following the proposal to revise the number of wards in the national capital.
Jagdish Mamgai, an expert on urban affairs and chairman of the Construction Committee of the Integrated Municipal Corporation of Delhi, has described the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (Amendment) Bill 2022 as limited to administrative integration. In this empowerment, freedom from the bureaucratic raj on deputation, the problems related to salary, pension and appointment of the employees have been completely ignored.
Due to the delimitation, there will be no possibility of the corporation elections being held soon, the corporation has been completely handed over to the bureaucrats and there will be no control over the elected public representatives. No provision has also been made for the power and empowerment of public representatives and for paying respectable salary to the councilors by constituting the Mayor-in-Council.
In the year 2009-10, the population of Delhi Municipal Corporation area was 1.64 crores, which has now reached more than 3 crores. Captain, Khwinder Singh, who was the zone president in the Congress corporation, says that now the BJP government should eliminate the non-plan head so that the work which takes six to eight months to stop corruption should be hurried. The Captain says that elections should be held soon in the new bill. Jaiprakash, the former mayor of the municipal corporation, says that by integrating the corporations, the BJP has planned to improve the financial situation.