The Auroville Foundation

President clears ‘Profit’ Bill: UPA government heaves a sigh of relief T.R. Ramachandran Tribune News Service Saturday, August 19, 2006, Chandigarh, India

New Delhi, August 18 Much to the relief of the Congress-led UPA government, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam today gave his assent to the controversial office of profit Bill, which had been passed by Parliament for the second time without changes. The danger of disqualification, weighing down heavily on the heads of 40 MPs, was now over. The anxiously awaited assent came a day after the government constituted a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to define what constituted an office of profit.

The legislation exempted 56 posts from the ambit of the office of profit, including the UPA’s National Advisory Council, the Uttar Pradesh Development Council, the Sriniketan Santiniketan Development Authority, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams Board, the Krishak Bharti Cooperative Limited, the Auroville Foundation, the Delhi Rural Development Board, the Dr Ambedkar Foundation, the All-India Council of Sports and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts.