To accommodate the ‘disgruntled’ Congress MlAs as chairpersons of boards and corporations, Punjab Cabinet on Tuesday paved the way for the enactment of a new law to enable legislators to hold several new categories of ‘Office of Profit’.
‘The Punjab State legislature (Prevention of Disqualification) (Amendment) Bill, 2018’ will be tabled in the forthcoming session of Punjab Vidhan Sabha. Earlier, the government had approved similar amendments to the Punjab State legislature (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1952.
With this, the legislators can now hold several new categories of ‘office of profit’, protecting them from disqualification in certain additional cases of office of profit.
Facing a problem of plenty MlAs, Punjab Congress is facing crisis after many of its MlAs raised a banner of revolt against its own government and the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh for “ignoring” them in the state Cabinet.
To pacify the growing resentment within the party, the state leadership wanted to accommodate over a dozen of party leaders as the chairpersons of boards and corporations.
According to an official spokesperson, with the amendments proposed in the Bill, various categories of office of profit will be added to the current list of positions or offices which MlAs can hold without inviting disqualification.
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”.
As per Section 1(A), “compensatory allowance” would mean any sum of money payable to the holder of an office by way of daily allowance, any conveyance allowance, house-rent allowance or travelling allowance for the purpose of enabling him to recoup any expenditure incurred by him in performing the functions of that office”.
Insertions and additions have also been made to the categories of offices of profit under Section 2 of the said Act under the Bill which includes any office held by a minister (including the Chief Minister), Minister of State or Deputy Minister, office of chairman, vice chairman, deputy chairman, state planning board, office of (each leader and each deputy leader) a recognized party and a recognized group in the Vidhan Sabha, office of chief whip, deputy chief whip or whip in the Assembly.
The Bill amends Section 2 to include the office of chairman or member of a committee, set up temporarily for the purpose of advising the government or any authority on a matter of public importance or for making an inquiry if the holder of such office is not entitled to any remuneration other than compensatory allowance.
This also include the office of chairman, director or member of any statutory or non-statutory body, if the holder of such office is not entitled to any remuneration other than compensatory allowance.