Kohima, Jul 18 (NEPS): Nagaland Minister for School Education Imkong L Imchen said the “controversial” Office of Profit Act should be done away as it lacked clarity.
Talking to NEPS here at his office chamber on Tuesday, the Minister said if an MLA or an MP was disqualified for holding the post of Chairmanship of Corporations as they enjoyed salaries and other perks as per the Office of Profit Act, there was no reason why the Chief Ministers, Ministers or for that matter even the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers should not be disqualified.
“I am as a Minister getting salary, bungalow, vehicles and many more whereas an MLA as Chairman of a Corporation gets peanuts,” Imchen explained. “And you said he (MLA) should be under the scanner of the Office of Profit for enjoying his salaries as Corporation chairman while Ministers who in fact enjoyed much more than him was not within the purview of the Act.”
“The Minister’s office is more of a profit than MLA’s office of corporation,” Imchentermed the Act as “diametrical to democracy.” He further argued that as elected legislators, they should be allowed to hold any public office. Otherwise, election itself had no meaning, he pointed out.
The Minister said the Members of the Parliament should have the wisdom to debate on this “un-pragmatic Act” and they should strike it off at the earliest as it had created more confusion.
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