The move has raised questions on the fate of 21 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators who had been appointed as Parliamentary secretaries previous year.
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According to ANI, a Delhi lawyer had sent a petition to the President’s office, after the state cabinet cleared the proposal keeping parliamentary secretaries out of the office-of-profit purview on June 19. Our present Parliamentary Secretaries are under a distinct set of laws, thus it doesn’t stop their membership.
Acting as a quasi judicial body, the Election Commission to whom the President referred the issue has sought replies of the MLAs.
In a series of tweets, Kejriwal also said no legislator was given a single paisa, vehicle or bungalow in their capacity as Parliamentary Secretary and said they were providing services for free.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday once again accused lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung of interfering in the Delhi’s government’s functioning, ratcheting up his long-running power tussle with the Centre’s representative in a letter laced with sarcasm. “Modiji has now made him sit at home”.
Kejriwal, said the Prime Minister follows the agenda of “not working, neither allowing anyone to work”.
Kejriwal said there were a few people who serve the mankind, “struggle and construct” while others are tasked with destructing and putting spanners on every good work.
“The 21 Parliamentary Secretaries were not appointed as per provision of the Bill”.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s bill to exempt 21 parliamentary secretaries from their disqualification as MLAs because of the illegality of holding two offices of profit at the same time, received a major setback today as President Pranab Mukherjee withheld the bill.
The bill was passed by the Delhi assembly after questions were raised over the legality of the appointment.
“We have passed more than 14-15 bills, most of which have either been rejected or pending with the MHA”. So there is nothing new. The proposed Bill urged to exclude the posts of Parliamentary Secretaries from the offices of profits. In his order, then Principal Secretary (General Administration Department) Anindo Majumdar had said, “The Parliamentary Secretaries will not be eligible for any remuneration or any perks of any kind from the Government”.
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“Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh too have Parliamentary Secretaries”, he said.
