Prez urged to disqualify 11 MLAs violating Office of Profit norms

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 23

BJP chief Manoj Tiwari in a letter written to President Pranab Mukherjee draws his attention towards an application submitted to him seeking disqualification of 11 MLAs of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party who have been appointed co-chairpersons of District Disaster Management Committees (DDMCs) in violation of the Office of Profit provisions.

Tiwari also urged the President to forward it to Election Commission of India for speedy timebound disposal. These MLAs are Sanjiv Jha (Burari), Nitin Tyagi (Laxmi Nagar), Praveen Kumar (Jangpura), Pawan Sharma (Adarsh Nagar), Sridutt Sharma (Ghonda), Rajesh Gupta (Wazirpur), Sarita Singh (Rohtash Nagar), Dinesh Mohania (Sangam Vihar), Amanatullah Khan (Okhla), Kailash Gehlot (Najafgarh) and Jarnail Singh (Tilak Nagar).

Addressing a press conference, Tiwari said that the detailed application presented before the President clearly established that contravening Section 14, 25, 2 (h) of Disaster Management Act, the Delhi Government has wrongfully appointed its MLAs to the District Disaster Management Committee (DDMC).

The law in the matter is very clear and the government cannot appoint MLAs as co-chairpersons of DDMCs and it is the Municipal Councillors who are lawfully eligible for this appointment. 

Acting with a political bias, the Kejriwal government instead of appointing the Councillors, appointed its own MLAs, he said.

These appointments were made in repeat of the March 2015 initial violation of Office of Profit provisions when the government appointed 21 Parliamentary Secretaries, Tiwari said.