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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3 held for 'raping' minor in J'khand's Pakur, search underway to trace 3 other accused
Pakur (PTI): Three persons have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping and raping a girl in Jharkhand's Pakur district, police said on Saturday.
Search is underway to nab three more accused in the case, they said.
The incident took place on February 17, but the FIR was lodged on Friday at Malpahadi police station, a senior police officer said.
“The minor alleged in the complaint that four people of her village (in Malpahadi area) and two others kidnapped her and then raped her in a truck," SP Nidhi Dwivedi told reporters.
"Considering the seriousness of the matter, a special investigation team (SIT) was set up. Three accused have been arrested from Malpahadi and Majhdiha areas," she said.
The accused are aged between 20 and 22 years.
"We have intensified the search operation to trace the remaining three accused," the SP added.
