Avoidable delay

MCD merger should have been done in time

The Bill tabled in Parliament to merge the three Delhi municipal corporations offers, prima facie, a sensible solution to the Union Territory’s sub-par urban service delivery. But both the details of the legislation and the role it plays in delaying municipal elections raise doubts about the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government’s intentions vis-à-vis the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which rules Delhi. There is no doubt that the decision to merge the three corporations, reversing a disastrous 10-year-old trifurcation under then chief minister Sheila Dikshit’s Congress government, will go a long way towards stabilising the urban body’s finances. The trifurcation resulted