‘Pro-poor’ Kejriwal govt’s ad blitzkrieg earns CAG rap, says expense against ‘basic tenets of public expenditure’
In fresh trouble that puts the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the dock, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has rapped Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for wasting public money on advertisements to highlight the work he has done for De
New Delhi: In fresh trouble that puts the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the dock, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has rapped Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for wasting public money on advertisements to highlight the work he has done for Delhiities.
Terming the government’s decision to spend huge amounts on nationwide publicity campaigns to connect with its audience “unjustified”, “irregular” and against the “basic financial tenets of public expenditure”, the report said that the city government, on the occasion of its first anniversary in February this year, should have focussed on Delhi rather than giving advertisements in different city editions of national newspapers and regional newspapers.
The list of publications which had received around Rs 18.47 crore from the Delhi government for carrying its advertisements included dailes from Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha and Tamil Nadu among other states.
“Delhi government is answerable to the taxpayer of Delhi. Advertisements all over India show imprudent expenditure of the Delhi taxpayer money,” the CAG report said.
Unfruitful expenditure of Rs 33.52 lakh for publishing advertisements in Hindi in English newspapers highlighting its various schemes, initiatives and programmes has also come under the scanner.
According to a RTI query by advocate Aman Panwar, the Delhi government had disbursed a total amount of Rs 14.56 crore for advertising excluding broadcast from February 10 to May 11 this year in different editions of 26 national newspapers. Of this, Rs 2.49 crore was spent on Delhi editions, while the remaining went to advertorials for other cities. In addition, over Rs 6 crore was spent for advertorials in regional newspapers.
On publicising the two rounds of the odd-even scheme, the Delhi government had spent around Rs 5 crore.
The CAG has now sought expenditure details of Delhi government advertisements on the electronic media.
The AAP government had in past invited severe criticism from the BJP and Congress for spending tax payers money on ads.