All you need to know about Delhi Municipal Corporation

Ahead of civic polls in Delhi, here’s a look at the history and composition of the city’s municipal corporation.

The State Election Commission notified that elections for the three municipal corporations in Delhi will be held in April. Delhi is compartmentalised and ruled by at least seven elected governments, including the municipal ones.

Apart from a central and a Delhi government, the city has five municipal corporations. There are two more civic bodies in Delhi other than the NDMC, SDMC and EDMC. Ahead of Delhi’s civic polls, here’s a brief history of the city’s municipal corporation.

There is no written history of autonomous rule in Delhi before 1863, although there is a mention of the existence of a municipality in 1862. The first regular meeting of the municipality was held on 23 April 1863, in which local people were called. On June 1, 1863 the meeting was presided over by the Commissioner of Delhi.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi was officially established on April 7, 1958 by an Act of Parliament. The Delhi Town Hall at Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi was the seat of the MCD from 1866 till late 2009, when offices shifted to the new MCD Civic Centre on Minto Road in Central Delhi.

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Generally, the responsibility of the development of villages lies with the panchayats, but the Municipal Corporation of Delhi can be said to be unique in this matter in the country, whose border area also includes the development of villages.

There was a time when Joint Water and Sewerage Board, Delhi State Electricity Board, and Delhi Road Transport Authority used to come under the corporation. But through an Act of Parliament in November 1971, the Transport Institute in Delhi was separated from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and a Road Transport Corporation was formed.