North East News Agency

The controversy over office of profit issue has affected the North Eastern region too. Every political party in the region is now busy in bringing allegations against their political opponents for holding offices of profit.

While the BJP in Manipur has urged the President to disqualify seven Congress MLAs, in Nagaland, the Congress has demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio for holding office of profit. Political parties are lebelling allegations against each other in Arunachal, Tripura and Meghalaya too.

The Congress which is in the Opposition in Nagaland has asked the Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio to step down. Referring to Article 191 of the Constitution, which says that a person shall be disqualified as a member of Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council of the state if he holds any office of profit under the union or state government as specified in the first schedule, other than an office exempted by the Legislature, Leader of Opposition I Imkong alleged that since Rio holds the post of Chairman for both the State Sports Council and the Nagaland Bamboo Mission, he is subject to stepping down from Chief Ministership. The Congress has already met Governor Shyamal Datta in this regard and had also faxed a copy of their demand to the Election Commission.

On the other hand, Manipur unit BJP urged President Abdul Kalam to disqualify seven Congress MLAs for holding office of profit. The BJP has also sent a memorandum to the President.

In the memorandum BJP named the seven Congress MLAs who are holding posts of chairmen of government boards and corporations. The MLAs are Nameirakpam Loken Singh, chairman of Loktak Development Authority, K. Ranjit Singh, chairman of Planning and Development Authority, Y. Mani Singh, chairman of Programme Implementation Committee, A. Aza, chairman of Khadi and Village Industries Board, DK Korungthang, chairman of Tribal Development Corporation, N. Biren Singh, chairman of Manipur Pollution Control Board and Bijoy Koijam, chairman of Manipur Electronics Corporation.

In Arunachal too, BJP in a memorandum to State Governor S K Singh demanded the disqualification of all the MLAs holding offices of profit in the State. The memorandum pointed out the State Government had appointed 20 MLAs in the capacity of chairmen, advisors to chief minister and parliamentary secretaries, which was cognisable under Article 190 and 191 of the Constitution. The memorandum stated as many as 10 MLAs were appointed as chairmen of various agencies, while six were appointed as advisors to chief minister and four as parliamentary secretaries by the state government through official orders on December 2004 and July 2005, with the status of Cabinet minister and minister of state enjoying various privileges and perks from the state exchequer. The BJP pleaded with the governor to recommend the issue to the Election Commission.

The option before the State Governments in the region either to to pass a bill or to issue an ordinance so that the posts held by legislators in boards, corporations and other such offices will be not be counted under the category of office of profit. This will prevent the disqualification of any legislator. Already Jharkhand Assembly has passed such a bill. But it seems that the State Governments will wait till a decision is taken in this regard at the national level.

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