The Delhi government spent close to Rs. 16 lakh on publicity every day over the last three months according to its reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by a city-based advocate.
According to the RTI reply, despatched by the Directorate of Information (DIP) to Aman Panwar, a south Delhi-based lawyer who also heads the legal cell of the Delhi Congress, upwards of Rs. 14.45 crore was spent solely on print ads by the DIP over the 90-day period between February 10 and May 10 this year – translating into a daily expenditure of over Rs. 15.88 lakh per day.
On its part, however, the Delhi government, which cut its allocation for Information and Publicity from Rs. 526 crore to Rs. 100 crore this year, stressed that its actual expenditure on publicity was recorded at Rs. 80 crore during the entirety of its first year in power.
“The period coincides with the one year anniversary celebrations of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government before and after which full page ads about its achievements running into multiple pages were published in more than 20 dailies across the country,” Mr. Panwar said.
Wasteful expenditure
“Such humongous and wasteful expenditure on government ads is directly prohibited by the Supreme Court by its judgement of May 13, 2015. Moreover, what is the justification of outstation ads being published by the Delhi government?” he asked.
Stressing that ads in Kerala, Bangalore, Chennai were of no use to the people of Delhi and terming it “a blatant misuse of the money of Delhi taxpayers”, Mr. Panwar pointed out that close to a dozen of these were published in dailies based outside the Capital.
Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Ajay Maken had filed a PIL in the Delhi High Court to deal with the issue last year, Mr. Panwar said.
Withheld information
Arguing that the Delhi government had withheld information on expenditure related to ads on hoardings and various media including television and radio incurred during the same period, Mr. Panwar said a Congress delegation was scheduled to examine records pertaining to ad expenses on Tuesday.
“We are legally empowered to inspect files under the RTI Act. As per our calculation, in just 3 months, approximately Rs. 120 crore on all sorts of publicity,” Mr. Panwar added.
According to a senior Delhi government official, “The amount spent on print advertising is completely justified given that initiatives requiring the generation of public awareness such as odd even as well as people-centric policies; the AAP government has actually curtailed expenditure on publicity by trimming the list of publications being chosen for the purpose.”
