After the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) announced that it will audit two Departments of the Delhi government — the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Department of Information Publicity (DIP) — deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia shot off a letter to the CAG encouraging him to audit all its Departments as well as the advertisement expenditure incurred by the Centre.
Welcoming the decision to audit the two Departments, Mr. Sisodia, in his letter to CAG Shashi Kant Sharma, said that through the audit findings the truth will emerge.
“Misinformation is being spread about our government’s advertisement expenses. It is an outrageous lie that this expenditure is around Rs.500 crore. In reality, it is not more than Rs.75 crore for the entire year, which I am sure will come out in your audit,” Mr. Sisodia wrote.
Asking for an audit of the Centre’s advertisement expenditure, the deputy CM wrote that thousands of crores of rupees were spent by the Modi government on publicising Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Mann Ki Baat, Yoga Day, Jan Dhan Yojna, Make in India and the Give Up LPG Subsidy scheme.
Publicity campaigns
“Everyone knows, hardly anything has been done on any of these schemes being advertised by the Centre and the claims being made in these ads are blatant lies,” he wrote.
Mentioning the recent second anniversary celebration of the Modi government, Mr. Sisodia said that the Centre had reportedly spent Rs.1,000 crores on advertising the event.
“Ads were placed in all national dailies in addition to TV and radio campaigns and it ran for more than a week. What was more surprising was that there was no message of public interest in these ads. They just carried pictures of Modiji and slogans praising him,” wrote Mr. Sisodia.
Not sparing other State governments, Mr. Sisodia said that Telangana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had carried out a massive publicity campaign across all States.
“Therefore, ad expenses of all governments are being debated nationally for last few years and dealt by no less than the Supreme Court. I would be extremely grateful if you can direct the Principal Accountant Generals of other State governments, which have much larger publicity budgets than the government of Delhi to carry out a comprehensive audit of the government ad expense of their respective States,” Mr. Sisodia wrote.
Misinformation is being spread about our government’s ad expenses, Sisodia wrote in his letter
