new delhi the lok sabha on wednesday passed the delhi municipal corporation amendment bill 2022 that proposes to reunify the three municipal corporations in the national capital this followed an intense debate in the house marked by union home minister amit shah accusing the kejriwal government of purposely starving the three civic bodies of funds in a bid to cause distress to delhiites so that they turn hostile against bjpthe fifth state finance commission had recommended that the delhi government grant rs 40561 crore to the municipal bodies however it released less than rs 7000 crore how could the corporations meet this shortfall of over rs 33000 crore shah wondered rebutting aaps sustained campaign that the bjpcontrolled civic bodies failed to perform because they were corruptthe civic bodies raised rs 20000 crore from their own resources but the gap crore could not be met as aap government denied the permission to float municipal bonds allowed for by rbi other similar proposals including the one for raising their share of commercial taxes were either declined or have been kept pending for years because of the delhi governments stepmotherly approach the home minister said had the state government implemented the recommendations of the finance commission municipal bodies would have done much more for the people of delhi he saidthey cannot put a lid on this because the truth has the strength to come out and overtake falsehoods shah saidthere is so much talk of attack on federal structure is denying municipal bodies funds they need to serve people is also not an attack on the federal spirit he asked the minister rejected the delhi governments stand that it had no money to spare for municipal bodies where do you get the money to splurge on advertisements from and for giving jobs to your cadre at exchequers expenseshah was responding to a debate where members of opposition parties criticised the bill calling it an assault on the federal structure questioned the centres competence to legislate on municipal bodies and alleged that the modi governments move was inspired by bjps fear of losing mcd electionsresponding to the charge by congresss adhir ranjan choudhary rsps n k premchandran and others who termed the bill as attack on federal structure of the country shah said the bill was in harmony with the constitution which empowers the centre to enact laws for delhi and other union territoriesthis bills has been brought in exercise of powers that section 239 aa has vested parliament with shah asserted adding that the centre lacks similar jurisdiction with regard to fullfledged statesaddressing the issue of the timing of the bill which has been brought in when the term of the three bodies are about to end the home minister said enacting the law earlier would have meant curtailment of the tenures of the elected corporators that would not have been a democratic thing to do he said shah who fashioned bjps victory in up also took headon aaps charge that the bill