Delhi LG directs chief secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from Aam Aadmi Party for ads projecting Arvind Kejriwal and party

Delhi LG directs chief secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from AAP for ads projecting Arvind Kejriwal and party allegedly in violation of SC guidelines.

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New Delhi: Lt Governor Anil Baijal has directed that Rs 97 crore be recovered from Aam Aadmi Party that was allegedly "splurged" by the Delhi government on advertisements in violation of the Supreme Court guidelines.

Baijal also ordered an inquiry into the spendings on advertisements projecting Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party and has asked the chief secretary to fix responsibility.

The AAP will have to reimburse the money within a month.

The move comes months after a Centre-appointed three-member committee indicted the AAP government for "misusing" exchequer money on advertisements.

Sources told PTI that out of Rs 97 crore incurred on advertisements, government has so far paid Rs 42 crore to ad agencies and the LG has directed chief secretary MM Kutty to get the amount reimbursed from AAP.

The rest Rs 55 crore, which is yet to be paid by the Kejriwal government, would be given by AAP to the ad agencies, according to the LG's directions.

Last year, the three-member committee, headed by former Chief Election Commissioner BB Tandon, had been constituted by the I&B ministry on directions of the Supreme Court to address issues related to Content Regulation in Government Advertising.

Earlier, on March 10, the CAG had put the AAP government in the dock over advertising its first-year "achievements" almost entirely outside the national capital and also putting out "non-verifiable" contents.

At that time, Kejriwal had lashed out at Shashi Kant Sharma, the Comptroller and Auditor General and had accused him of doing "politics" and had also gone on to suggest that the top auditor might have done it "out of compulsion" to save his job, as per PTI.

In the reports, which were tabled in the Delhi Assembly, the CAG had pointed out that in its first year, the AAP government had spent Rs 29 crore on advertisements outside Delhi, as part of one particular campaign, which was "beyond" its responsibility.

The report had also observed that advertisements worth Rs 24 crore were in violation of financial propriety and SC regulations.

The Kejriwal government had allotted a whopping Rs 522 crore for advertisement and publicity in 2015-16 budget, which was later revised to Rs 134 crore.

In the 2017-18 Budget, Rs 198 crore has been set aside for publicity while 2016-17 budgetary allocation under the head was Rs 207 crore, which has been revised to Rs 181 crore. 

(With PTI inputs)