New Delhi, Apr 4 (PTI) In a swipe at the central government, AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh on Tuesday asked it to rename the bill to reunify Delhi's three municipal corporations as the "Kejriwal-phobia" bill and alleged that it was brought by the BJP to avoid civic polls.

Speaking in the upper house, he alleged that the Centre wants to take control of the three municipal corporations to stop Arvind Kejriwal's AAP from coming to power.

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"If you don't have to contest election and run away from the election, then I will suggest again, name this bill the Kejriwal-phobia bill.

"This bill will depict the story of your cowardice... of you crushing the Constitution.. ending the Election Commission. You have made Delhi the centre of corruption," Singh alleged.

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The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, was piloted in Rajya Sabha by Home Minister Amit Shah and passed by Parliament on Tuesday.

Lok Sabha had passed the bill, which seeks to amend the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act of 1957, on March 30.

Singh said that the Centre provides support of only Rs 325 crore while the state government has provided support of thousands of crores to the MCDs with the latest being of over Rs 6,000 crore.

Several opposition parties including the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress (AITC), CPI (M), and the DMK questioned the timing of the bill and called it an attack on the federal structure of the country.

AITC member Jawhar Sircar said that the Delhi assembly was not consulted on the bill and his party believes in consultation with elected bodies.

The YSR Congress, AIADMK and Tamil Maanila Congress supported the bill.

BJD supported the bill with the condition that the MCD elections are not deferred and the BSP sought some amendments and relief for workers in the bill.

"The Government of India is a big thing and the government of India has many responsibilities to discharge. They have to eradicate poverty in the country. They have to improve the GDP of the country. They have to take care security of the country.

"I as a layman fail to understand what is the necessity of the central government in taking over directly or indirectly the responsibility of a municipality," BJD member Prasanna Acharya said.

SP member Jaya Bachchan said she opposes the bill because it's undemocratic.

BSP member Ramji said that workers don't get the safety and modern tools to clean sewage in Delhi which has led to a loss of 300 lives in the last five years.

CPI member Binoy Viswam opposed the bill and said that the central government is afraid of elections.

Naresh Gujaral (SAD) alleged that municipalities all over the country have become dens of corruption. Given this backdrop, the Home Minister has to relook at the powers of corporators all over the country, he said.

The Congress' Shaktisinh Gohil said the trifurcation of the MCD was not done in haste, but was based on reports by expert committees that dwelled on the benefits from such a move.

"What we had done was based on reports of two expert committees. And what did you do," he said, attacking the BJP.

Gohil questioned the timing of the legislation, and opposed the bill to merge three municipal corporations of Delhi.

GVL Narasimha Rao (BJP) said his party believes in democratic values and is against dynasticism.

He said that the Delhi model of government is all about "starve development'' and "saturate advertisement".

Fauzia Khan of NCP argued that had the Union Government, before the passage of the Bill, taken the Delhi Government into confidence, it would have set the right example of `co-operative federalism'.

"Government should not become like a three-armed man, where one arm is used to pat your own back all the time," she said, urging withdrawal of the Bill.

Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena urged Home Minister Amit Shah to have a rethink on the Bill, and take a decision after holding discussions with the Delhi Assembly.

BJP MP Vivek Thakur cited that the convenor of the Confederation of MCD Employees Union too had observed that there had been no salary delays since MCD came into existence in 1957 till 2012.

The trifurcation happened after which lakhs of employees and 60,000 pensioners are suffering, he said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)