AAP vs L-G: In yet another faceoff between Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena and the Aam Aadmi Party, the L-G has directed the chief secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from the party for political advertisements it published in the guise of government ads, official sources said on Tuesday.
The issue soon became an issue of contention between the L-G and the AAP. Rebuking the order, AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said that the L-G has no power to pass such orders, "The Delhi LG has no such power. He cannot issue such directions. These won't stand in front of the law. Other state governments also issue advertisements. The BJP's various state governments issued advertisements that have been published here. We want to ask when will the Rs 22,000 crore spent on the advertisements be recovered from them? The day that money is recovered, we will also give Rs 97 crore," Bhardwaj said.
"The BJP is flustered that we have become a national party and wrested power from it in the MCD. LG sahab is doing everything in accordance with the BJP's directions and that is troubling the people of Delhi. The more worried Delhi's people are, the happier the BJP gets," Bhardwaj claimed.
Identifying specific advertisements published by the government which were in "stark violation of guidelines", a Committee on Content Regulation in Government Advertising had in 2016 directed the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) to quantify the amounts spent by it in such advertisements and recover the same from the ruling AAP, they added.
The DIP quantified that Rs 97,14,69,137 had been spent or booked on account of "non-conforming advertisements". "Of this, while payments amounting to over Rs 42.26 crore had already been released by the DIP, Rs 54.87 crore for advertisements published were still pending disbursal," a source said.
The DIP in 2017 directed the AAP to pay over Rs 42.26 crore to the state exchequer immediately and directly pay the pending amount of Rs 54.87 crore to the advertising agencies or publications concerned within 30 days.
"However, even after the lapse of five years and eight months, the AAP has not complied with this DIP order," the source said.
With PTI inputs
