Office of profit issue : Dasmunsi submits report to PM

New Delhi, Mar 27 (UNI) Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi today submitted his report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the ''office of profit'' issue, following his discussions with leaders of various political parties.

The government is likely to take a decision on the matter on March 30, sources said.

The Prime Minister had assigned Mr Dasmunsi to talk to political leaders to arrive at a consensus on which offices should be kept out of the purview of "office of profit", under the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959.

The Sources said Mr Dasmunsi had in the past couple of days held parleys with Leader of the Opposition L K Advani, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav and UPA leaders.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi had resigned from the chairmanship of the National Advisory Council last week following the demand by opposition parties that she be disqualified from the Lok Sabha for holding an office of profit, equating her case to that of cine star and former Rajya Sabha M P Jaya Bachchan, who was expelled from the Upper House by President A P J Abdul Kalam on the recommendations of the Election Commission.

The government began the exercise of redefining the law following a spate of complaints against MPs and MLAs, including Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and BJP Deputy leader in Lok Sabha V K Malhotra, to the Election Commission that they enjoyed ''offices of profit''.

The Election Commission was yet to give its recommendations on the complaints forwarded to it by political parties directly or by Dr Kalam.

The government would now decide whether it should reconvene Parliament to bring in legislation to amend the Law or issue an Ordinance in this regard. The Budget Session of Parliament was adjourned sine-die abruptly on March 22 on the ground that there was no agenda pending with the government. Both the Houses were originally to reconvene on May 10 for the second phase of the Budget session after recess.

According to the sources, Ms Gandhi had also talked with leaders of UPA partners on telephone to ascertain their views.

The Left party leaders are understood to have conveyed that a Bill be introduced in Parliament at the earliest to resolve the issue in view of the approaching Assembly elections in four states and Pondicherry.

The BJP leaders, Mr Advani and Mr Jaswant Singh, have also reportedly conveyed that they were not against such a Bill but it should not have any retrospective effect.

The sources said that during the discussions with Mr Dasmunsi the political parties by and large supported a Bill to be brought forward to redefine "offices of profit" to exempt some posts.

UNI KAS/YS AT RS2024