The Delhi High Court on Tuesday observed that the national capital should have a single civic agency responsible for all core services, including road construction, sewage, garbage disposal, and drain management, instead of multiple overlapping bodies.
A division bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Manmeet PS Arora highlighted the mismanagement arising from the multiplicity of agencies, noting that unlike New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) which independently manages all civic amenities in Lutyens’ Delhi, the rest of the city suffers from confusion and lack of accountability.
“It should be one civic agency for the whole of Delhi. Like it is for Lutyens’ Delhi, it is only the NDMC—water, construction, drain and road, everything. So that’s how it should be for the whole of Delhi. You can make different departments if you want, but it should be one agency,” the bench remarked.
The court was hearing petitions concerning waterlogging, rainwater harvesting, and traffic congestion during monsoons. It had earlier flagged the “enormous confusion” caused by improper delineation of responsibilities among civic bodies and asked the Delhi government to consider centralising the administration.
During Tuesday’s proceedings, the Delhi government’s counsel submitted that the Integrated Drain Management Cell (IDMC) was the authority overseeing all drains in the capital. However, the bench noted this was not entirely accurate since IDMC was not managing both storm water drains and sewage drains.
The bench pointed out that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) handles storm water drains, while the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) manages sewage lines, creating a fragmented system that leads to inefficiency, especially during the monsoon season.
The High Court directed the Delhi chief secretary to place its order before the Delhi government’s administrator or other functionaries and file a status report clarifying the official stand on the matter. The case will be taken up again on September 3.
