Delhi's three civic bodies to become one again on May 22

The three civic bodies of Delhi will merge into one Municipal Corporation on May 22 as the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022 comes into force, according to a Union Home Ministry notification.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation which each comprise 104 municipal wards and the East Delhi Municipal Corporation that contains 64 wards will be treated as one civic body - the Municipal Corporation of Delhi- from May 22, the notification said.

The three municipal corporations were trifurcated in 2012 by the then Congress government in Delhi.

According to the amendment, the Central government will appoint a special officer to run the new unified civic body until the elections to the civic body and first meeting of the corporation are held, Home Ministry officials said.

While the term of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation ended on Wednesday, the tenure of the North Delhi and East Delhi Corporations will be completed on May 19 and May 22, respectively.

The officials also said that the single, well-equipped entity would be able to manage the national capital better and to reduce the expenditure to a larger extent.

The Delhi Election Commission was scheduled to announce civic poll dates on March 8 but it deferred the announcement after being notified by the Centre regarding the unification of the three municipal bodies.

The Bill to unify the three civic bodies was approved by the Parliament on April 5 and received President Ram Nath Kovind's assent on April 18.