Goa passes ordinance on office of profit issue

The ordinance has exempted the offices of the vice-chairman of the Kala Academy, chairman, vice-chairman and members of the Entertainment Society of Goa, chairman of the State Urban Development Agency (SUDA) and the Goa Tillari Irrigation Development Corporation. The offices are presently held by Congress legislators.

The promulgated ordinance is called the Goa Members of the Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) (Amendment), Ordinance, 2006.

Last year's amendment had exempted the office of the chairman of Kala Academy, currently held by the chief minister, Pratapsingh Rane.

It may be recalled that earlier two legislators of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) "� the state party president Rajendra Arlekar and the former agriculture minister Dayanand Mandrekar, were disqualified for holding the office of profit before the legislation came into existence.

The Panaji (division) bench of the Bombay High Court had set aside the elections of Arlekar and Mandrekar on the grounds of holding office of profit during the May 2002 assembly polls, in response to the petitions filed separately by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) members, who had contested the election against the two BJP MLAs.

The judgment had brought the BJP's strength in the Goa assembly down to 14 MLAs.

Last week, the Union government passed a Bill in the Lok Sabha to exempt 46 positions, including the post of chairperson of National Advisory Council (NAC), from being classified as offices of profit.