Recover Rs 97 crore from AAP for advertisements: Delhi LG Anil Baijal

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal directed the chief secretary to recover the amount from AAP.

IN A setback to the Delhi government, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal directed the chief secretary to recover an amount of Rs 97 crore from AAP, which it had allegedly “splurged” on advertisements, within 30 days. The move comes months after a Centre-appointed three-member committee indicted the AAP government for “misusing” exchequer money on advertisements and violating Supreme Court guidelines. The committee — set up on SC orders to address issues related to content regulation in government advertising (CGRA) in 2015 — had forwarded its report to the chief secretary, GNCTD, last September for further action. The committee had also directed the government to assess the expenditure incurred by it on certain categories of advertisements, and get it reimbursed from the party concerned.

“Therefore, as advised by the law department and secretary (DIP), a notice should immediately be issued to political party concerned for recovery of amount already paid. The party concerned may also be advised to pay directly to the agencies concerned in respect of remaining advertisements whose payments have not been released so far by the government. The notice so issued should give full details of all advertisements and fix a timeline of 30 days from date of issue to reimburse the requisite amount to the government exchequer,” the letter said.

“The file was sent from the L-G secretariat to the chief secretary. It was then forwarded to the deputy CM’s office, where it remained for a while before being sent back to the L-G. Today’s notice is in reaction to this,” a highly-placed official said. Reacting to the order, AAP spokesperson Dilip Pandey said no such communication was received either by the CM’s office or deputy CM’s office or by the party. “Unless we receive such a communication, it is hard to comment on the issue,” he said.

Hitting out at AAP, Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari said, “It is a matter of regret that a person who came to power promising uprightness and purity in politics, today stands accused of misuse of public money. Anyone other than Kejriwal would have resigned from his position after this order.” In a report earlier this month, the CAG had also found that the government had spent Rs 29 crore in releasing advertisements outside Delhi which was “beyond” its responsibility. The panel is chaired by former chief election commissioner BB Tandon, and includes Rajat Sharma, chairman and editor-in-chief of India TV and president of the news broadcasters association, and Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and creative director, South Asia, Ogilvy and Mather.