MCD Election 2017: Vijay Goel for unification of three municipal corporations in Delhi

New Delhi: Union minister Vijay Goel on Tuesday batted for the unification of the three municipal corporations in the national capital saying a discussion over the issue was pertinent. The BJP leader, who was confident of a good show by his party in the MCD polls, the results of which will be declared on Wednesday, said the civic bodies needed to be “revamped” in order to deliver the services to the people more effectively. [caption id=“attachment_3112250” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Vijay Goel. AFP[/caption] The first thing needed was a discussion on the unification of the three municipal corporations and there should also be an end to the practice of sending Delhi government officials to serve in the civic bodies, said the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs and Sports. “Barring one, the two other civic bodies have been incurring losses. It would be more fruitful and efficient if all the three were merged,” he said, referring to the north, south and east Delhi municipal corporations. The erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was trifurcated into NDMC, SDMC and EDMC by the then Sheila Dikshit-led Delhi government in 2012. Goel predicted a “thumping” victory for the BJP in the MCD polls. He said the newly-elected BJP councillors will be trained on the functioning of the civic bodies and dealing with the bureaucracy. “We will train them to deal with the bureaucracy as well as on civic issues pertaining to the public to ensure that all the grievances are addressed in a time-bound manner,” said Goel. If voted to power again in the civic bodies, cleanliness would be the first priority of the BJP councillors, he said. The saffron party, which has been ruling the three municipal corporations for the last 10 years, faced a sustained attack from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress for Delhi’s “poor” sanitation facilities, along with “mismanagement and corruption” by its councillors, in the run-up to the MCD polls.