Delhiites begin to rue decision to elect AAP to power.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi is once again facing the heat of opposition parties after the Kejriwal lead government allocated Rs. 526 crore ($90 million) for advertising its projects and achievements against a mere Rs. 24 crore spent by his predecessor Sheila Dikshit.
The whopping hike in the publicity budget of the Delhi government, which is close to 2,200% more than the previous year, has given the opposition another chance to attack the beleaguered AAP government.
AAP MLA from Timarpur, Pankaj Pushkar, was quoted by Firstpost saying “Going by the core principles of the AAP, it’s extremely disappointing to see the way the Delhi government has been trying to gain publicity through TV and radio advertisements. The TV ad that projects Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as a demigod is obnoxious. Delhi’s Law minister Kapil Mishra informed me that the publicity budgets of all the departments have been clubbed together, making the cumulative figure look bigger. But that still doesn’t justify Rs 526 crore budget. I’m going to ask how this amount will be spent and under what heads.”
A former CAG official, who had earlier audited Delhi government’s account on condition of anonymity told Firstpost, “The previous Congress government had a budgetary provisioning of Rs 10 crore for publicity, which was increased to Rs 24 crore during the Commonwealth Games. What justification could there be of going for a 2200% percent hike? During audits it had been found that under the garb of publicity and releasing advertisements, the departments illegally earn money through ‘cuts’ from private players, like for putting up hoardings etc. ’20 to 30 percent commission’ is demanded. Now, it needs to be seen how the present government works on Rs 526 crore provisioning.”
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The opposition and the now estranged Prashant Bhushan have attacked Kejriwal for his image booster ad, which addresses the AAP government as the “Kejriwal Sarkar” (taking cue from the BJP ad for the 2014 election) as a violation of the Supreme Court’s order.
Leader of Opposition, Vijendra Gupta, said, “The increase of budget on information and publicity by 2,200%, followed by projecting Kejriwal as a messiah in a recent TV ad, violates the order of the Supreme Court.”
The Supreme Court has already produced a ruling that no political party or leader should use the government advertising as a means of self-projection. The ruling says “this is to avoid the misuse of public funds for plugging the ruling party and glorifying politicians”.
The court further askes to utilize the advertisement spending to sensitize the people through information dissemination and also encouraged the use of photographs of the President, Prime Minister and Chief Justice of India.
According to sources close to Prashant Bhushan, he is planning to file a contempt petition in the court against political parties and leaders who are using the public money for self-promotion through TV and radio ads.
AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha said, “We’re not denying that there has been a hike in the information and publicity budget over the previous year. But, this time the publicity amount of all the departments have been clubbed together under a single head so that the spending could be audited. Due to this reason, the provisioning appears to a big one and the issue has unnecessarily been hyped. The objective is to bring greater transparency in allocation vis-à-vis expenditure.”
The AAP government and its malfunctioning may have Delhi residents shake their heads in frustration, as they have only themselves to blame for the disaster unfolding slowly day by day.
8 Comments
Typical of Indian Politicians mentality-stupidy. No planning or priorities. The top priority should be infrastructure, which is garbage disposal and clean drinking water. Improper disposal of garbage seeps into the surface water and it is contaminates. They should have spent the money for newer methods of garbage disposal like pneumatic tubes akin to a drive in ATM machine where money is put in a cylinder and passed around. Desalination (applies to Mumbai or coastal cities) and transportation of the water to the inner cities. The cities like Los Angeles who failed to plan for the infrastructure are now paying heavy dues. Indian politicians are blind sided and never learn from history.
Delhiites are idiots, of course – they fully deserve the misery they’ve earned for themselves by voting for Kejriwal. Delhi is the laughingstock of the country, and have destroyed their own credibility by voting crooks and idiots into power.
Anyone will rightly shake their head when they see an AAPtard.
Arvind kejariwal is going to get into lots trouble from various quarters and he will never come to power again. He is a failed unworthy polirician and Till last week I was trusting him.After his electricity bill and his planned AD budget, I have lost all my respects to this unworthy man
India Mars Mission 450 cr.. Kejriwal self advertisement 526 cr… what a idea sir ji ???
if you have so much money saved from non corruption, then you do not have money to pay MCD employees, buy land for school, hardly you have money for any other project.
YOu have spent 10 times more than saving on advertisement
The money is meant to create awareness about schemes, not “promote” something.
wow.. if u r paid by AAP, no issue.. otherwise dont be such a mental slave… whats the diff between you and fools behind BJP, Congress…
Yes yes – just like the recent TV Ad which creates awareness about Kejriwal :-) with fake claims of giving electricity subsidy by curbing corruption but actually AAP has used tax money to give subsidy to Bhikhari public of Delhi who sold their votes against 500 rs month kejriwal pays to them … interesting part is that the discoms are getting 20% more for electricity than before … whom r u trying to fool man?