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.
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Efforts of party cadres will be rewarded on May 4: DMK chief Stalin
Chennai (PTI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday said that the efforts made by his party cadres during the Assembly elections would be rewarded on May 4.
The counting of votes for the Assembly elections held on April 23 will be taken up on May 4.
"We are set to reap the rewards of the hard work put in by our party cadres on the coming fourth (May 4 counting day). There is absolutely no change in this and not even the slightest deviation," Stalin said at a May Day event here.
"There is no need for anyone to assume that I am speaking merely on the basis of exit polls," he added.
Stalin, who is also DMK chief, said that "good news" would come for those eagerly waiting for the election results.
Stating that the DMK governance is based on philosophy and principles, Stalin said, "This will continue."
He recalled the pivotal role of the then Chief Minister C N Annadurai, who first declared May Day as a government holiday, and subsequently, late CM M Karunanidhi, who was instrumental in extending it as a paid holiday across the nation.
"Responding to the request of Kalaingnar (Karunanidhi), the then Prime Minister V P Singh accepted the plea and declared it (May 1) a paid government holiday not merely for Tamil Nadu, but for the entire nation," Stalin said.
