Govt notified parl secys won’t get perks: Sisodia
WAR OF WORDS Deputy CM says bypolls being imposed to derail development
NEWDELHI: Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday said that the AAP government’s decision to pass a bill in June 2015 to exclude parliamentary secretaries from the ambit of office of profit was taken because “questions were being raised” against them.
The minister justified the bill, which was struck down a year later by the then President Pranab Mukherjee. Sisodia said it was meant to reinforce the party’s stand that the 21 parliamentary secretaries did not get any remuneration or perks.
“When questions were raised, we thought why not pass a bill as well. As there was, anyway, no scope of ‘office of profit’ in our March 13, 2015 notification which clearly stated that the parliamentary secretaries will not be given any remuneration or perks from the government,” Sisodia said.
He said that the Aam Aadmi Party was going to use this notification as its defence in the court. Twenty AAP MLAS have been disqualified by the President, on a recommendation by the Election Commission, for holding an office of profit. Eight of these MLAS have filed a petition in the Delhi High Court against the notification. The plea will be heard on Wednesday.
“I have full faith in the court. The Central government had dissolved the assembly in Aruna- chal Pradesh and Uttarakhand using its machinery, including the President, but the (Supreme) Court saved democracy,” the deputy chief minister said.
Alleging that the Election Commission was working “under pressure”, Sisodia raised questions on Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat’s previous stand when he recused himself from being a party to the case. “I would request him (Rawat) to be serious about his own conduct. First, he announced that he is recusing himself from the case, then after six months he quietly comes back to the case,” Sisodia said.
Sisodia’s charge against EC were reiterated by AAP’S national spokesperson Raghav Chadha, who dubbed the poll panel a ‘Khap Panchayat’.
Chadha said Rawat had recused himself from hearing the same office of profit case against the now disqualified 20 AAP MLAS after allegations over his relationships with many BJP leaders, including Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, had surfaced.
Responding to the allegations, CEC Rawat said, “Two notices were sent to the AAP, but what they responded to was not in the context of the notices. The notices were very comprehensive about what they wanted to say, but since this matter is sub-judice we should not be talking of this.”
Sisodia said that the BJP wants to derail the development works of the AAP government by bringing in the model code of conduct.
“BJP knows that in last three years, this government has strengthened many things (schemes). While BJP is closing government schools in other states, AAP is building five schools of excellence. They want to stop our schemes like doorstep delivery, mohalla clinics, CCTVS across the city and free-wifi by imposing model code of conduct for the bypolls,” Sisodia said.