Delhi Congress drive for recovery of Rs 854 cr advertisement spend by AAP

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday said it will run a signature campaign demanding recovery of nearly Rs 854 crore from the ruling Aam Aadmi Party for putting out "false and misleading" advertisements in national media outside Delhi.

Addressing media persons here, Delhi Congress unit President Ajay Maken said party activists will collect 8 lakh 54 thousand signatures from the people across Delhi on October 8 and 9 and submit them to Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung to press for its demand. 

Referring to a public interest litigation that he had filed, Maken said the Supreme Court-appointed B.B.Tandon Committee, in its report, held the AAP government "guilty of spending crores of rupees" on advertisements, and that Rs 284 crore as per Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity (DAVP) rates be collected from the party.

He said that according to the DAVP rates, the advertisement amount works out to around Rs 284 crore whereas the AAP should be charged on commercial rates as the advertisements were published for the publicity of a political party, which is three times more than the DAVP rates, and works out to Rs 854 crore.

Maken said the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had also found that the Delhi government had put out false and misleading information in its advertisements. 

The CAG also noted that the Delhi government had failed to provide satisfactory replies to its claim that it had saved Rs 350 crore in the construction of flyovers, and that it aet up dispensaries for Rs 5 lakh which otherwise used to cost Rs 20 lakh each, said the Congress leader.

Maken also claimed that of the total advertisements released by the AAP government in Delhi, 85 per cent money was released to newspapers outside Delhi.