Punjab amends law on 'office of profit' to accommodate MLAs
Chandigarh, June 27: To dodge the ruling of various courts on the issue of lawmakers holding an office of profit, the Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday paved the way for MLAs to hold several new categories of office of profit by approving some amendments to the Punjab State Legislature (Prevention of Disqualification) Act 1952.
The amendments will protect the MLAs from disqualification in certain additional cases of office of profit, apart from the ones included in the original Act, an official spokesperson disclosed after a Cabinet meeting here.
The move will allow legislators in Punjab to hold high offices in boards, corporations and other bodies under the state government.
The Congress party, which has been running the government in Punjab since March 2017, has 78 legislators in the 117-member Assembly. But only 18 of them, including the Chief Minister, hold ministerial berths.
This has led to a lot of discontent among Congress legislators who could not make it into the Amarinder Singh cabinet.
The amendments "aimed at addressing the complexities of modern day governance", include incorporation of a new Section 1A to provide for the definitions of "compensatory allowance", "statutory body" and "non-statutory body", the spokesperson said.
Various high courts have come down on lawmakers for holding office of profit. Twenty one lawmakers of the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi were disqualified by a court last year for this.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Kalaburagi Jail Chief Superintendent gets threat
Kalaburagi (Karnataka), Nov 28: Kalaburagi Jail Chief Superintendent R Anitha on Thursday said that an unknown person sent an audio message via a police inspector claiming that they will blow up her car.
However, police said they have not received any complaints in this regard.
Speaking to reporters here, Anitha said, "Somebody has sent an audio message to the police inspector saying that they will blow up my car. I personally did not receive any such message so far, so I would not be lodging any police complaint."
Following the alleged threat, Anitha said she would be more cautious now.
Last month, after Anitha took charge as the Chief Superintendent of Jail, raids were conducted and searches were intensified after photographs and video clips purportedly showing three inmates getting special treatment in the Kalaburagi Central prison went viral on social media.
Following the raids, cell phones, gutka and cigarette packets and beedis were seized from the inmates.
