New Delhi, Mar 30 (PTI) The Congress on Wednesday alleged that the government's move to bring a bill to merge the three municipal corporations here was an attempt to regain control of the national capital, and claimed that the legislative competence over such matters rests with the Delhi assembly and not Parliament.

Initiating the debate on the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, in Lok Sabha, Congress member Manish Tewari said that in 1991, Delhi was given legislative powers by forming a legislative assembly, but the central government made an attempt to take back control of Delhi last year by amending the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) Act.

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This bill brought in the House to merge the three municipal corporations of Delhi is a step in that direction, he said.

Tewari said that while introducing the bill in the House, the government argued that under the terms of the second proviso of Clause C of Article 239 (A) (A) of the Constitution, the government has the legislative competence to bring such a bill in Parliament.

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He said that this part of the article has only one intention that "if the Delhi government or the legislative assembly makes some strange law which causes serious disturbance to the administration of the national capital, then this House can use that proviso, to resolve an emergency situation".

The objective of the proviso in the article was never to make a law which is under the jurisdiction of the Delhi assembly.

Tewari said that in 1993, Parts 9 and 9A were added to the Constitution of India and constitutional rights were given to panchayats and municipalities. At that time it was ensured that the right to create municipalities rests with states, the Congress MP said.

He said that the legislative intent in the relevant article of the Constitution is that the powers of local bodies should remain with state governments.

The Congress leader claimed that the legislative competence to amend the said law rests with the Delhi Legislative Assembly and not Parliament.

Tewari said that the central government is citing resource gap among the three corporations for integration, if so, then this gap could have been filled by a grant to the Delhi government.

"What was the need for the merger of the three corporations," he asked.

Referring to the postponement of the press conference called by the Election Commission of Delhi for the announcement of the dates for the election of municipal corporations on March 9, he said that "perhaps at the last minute, the Ministry of Home Affairs would have sent a letter that we would merge the corporations, so postpone the announcement."

Tiwari said that this raises a question over the autonomy of institutions such as the election commission and has far-reaching consequences on India's democracy.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)