MPs’ 2-day ‘junket’ sparks row

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 24

A two-day five-star junket-cum-stay of members of the Joint Committee of Parliament on office of profit in the luxurious Wild Flower Resort in Chharabra has sparked a row.

The fact that the trip will cost lakhs of rupees has not gone down well with the general public.

The seven MPs — three from the ruling BJP, one each from the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the AIADMK — are lodging in the luxurious suites of the Wild Flower Hall. “A suite in the resort costs Rs 80, 000 or so,” sources disclosed.

They refused to stay in the state guest house — Hotel Peterhoff — and chose the five-star hotel at Chharabra facing the Retreat, the summer residence of the President, they said.

The committee members called meetings of officials of the state government, including Chief Secretary VC Pharka, secretary, General Administration Department, and Rural Development Department, to know which government appointments came under the ambit of office of profit, the sources revealed. “The committee members will hold a series of meetings in the hotel tomorrow,” officials said.

When asked about the hotel booking, the officials said the members might have booked the rooms from Delhi.

The members have thrown all talks of austerity measures to the wind. Ironically, all politicians, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa talk about refraining from worldly pleasures.

The state government has appointed nine chief parliamentary secretaries, apart from advisers, chairmen and a vice-chairmen in the present set-up. Their appointments are under the scanner as is the case with AAP Government in Delhi which had appointed 20 parliamentary secretaries.

The office of profit row has been creating a political storm over the years as Parliament and the Vidhan Sabha have been beating about the bush dithering in identifying then disqualifying the appointees under the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959. Under the Representation of the People’s Act, they can’t hold the office of profit. The Act provides that if a member or a director of a statutory or non-statutory body or a company is not entitled to any remuneration other than the compensatory allowance, the member will not incur disqualification for receiving those allowances.

“The state has a similar law to disqualify the appointees enjoining the office of profit,” the source disclosed.