Meanwhile, Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain on Saturday claimed the AAP government has “not violated” any guideline of the Supreme Court on advertisements while he accused the BJP-led MCDs of spending money meant for dengue and chikungunya awareness on “self-glorification”.
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“Had the AAP issued these advertisements on non DAVP rates, three times more, the cost of the same would have been more than Rs 850 crore. The lies of AAP are getting exposed in Delhi after the incident”, he said.He said the AAP leaders are now on world tour after cheating the people of Delhi, with its deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in Finland. Citing CAG report, he said, “No new dispensaries were created in 2015-16 by the government in Delhi”.
A Central government established Committee on Friday came down heavily on AAP government in Delhi, saying it had been splurging exchequer’s money on advertisements projecting Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party and violating the guidelines of Supreme Court.
In his letter, Gupta said he demanded “that the responsibility of AAP ministers and officers of the Delhi government should be fixed so that it does not happen in future”. “It (the Centre) has done a number of flip-flops in the case”, said a government spokesperson.
As per the Supreme Court order of May 13, 2015, advertisements by state governments should not be “outside its boundaries”, but it should be for attracting investment, business and talent to the state.
It has also directed that the Delhi government assess expenditure on those advertisements or advertorials in which the name of the AAP is mentioned, which publicized the views of the chief minister on incidents that took place in other States, and advertisements which targeted the opposition.
The three-member committee had been constituted by the I&B ministry on directions of the Supreme Court to address issues related to content regulation in government advertising.
“AAP said it has saved Rs 350 crore in the construction of flyovers”. “We condemn the photo-op activities of (Delhi Tourism Minister) Kapil Mishra in the name of One Delhi”, Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unit chief Satish Upadhyay told reporters here.
“The order (of the committee) comes as a big relief for the tax payers of Delhi, as their hard-earned money siphoned off by the Chief Minister will now be recovered from his party”, he said.
The committee had received a complaint from Congress leader Ajay Maken accusing the AAP government in Delhi of splurging public money on advertisements.
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“When Delhi was under President’s Rule in 2014, the total amount spent on advertising was Rs 14.5 crore”.
