AAP faces a major setback as the notice comes just ahead of the civic body elections in Delhi
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s problems are far from over as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Convenor has been slapped with a notice to reimburse Rs 97 core spent by the party on promotional advertisements, this violating Supreme Court guidelines. This notice comes as a major setback for AAP as the party is busy campaigning for the upcoming civic body elections.
The notice, interestingly, has been issued by the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP), which comes under the Chief Minister, and has been marked to the AAP convenor. It has directed Kejriwal to repay Rs 97 crore within 30 days but it has also directed him to pay Rs 42 crore on an “immediate” basis.
DIP has issued the notice after Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal directed chief secretary MM Kutty stating that the Rs 97 crore spent on advertisements by the Delhi CM should be recovered from AAP, citing a violation of Supreme Court guidelines. He has also asked for responsibility to be fixed over the alleged irregularities.
The copy of the notice issued by DIP and accessed by DNA states, “The scrutiny of available records has been revealed that tentatively an amount of Rs 97,14,69,137 (approximately) has been assessed to be incurred on advertisement which may be classified into the category of violation of Honourable Supreme Court guidelines as per the order dated September 16, 2016 of the Committee on Content Regulation of Government Advertising, Government of India.”
Further the order states that as per the records available with DIP, out of Rs 97 crore — payment of Rs 42 crore has been already made to the concerned agencies — and Rs 54 crore was outstanding.
“In view of the above, you are required to reimburse Rs 42,26,81,265 to the state Exchequer immediately and Rs 54,87,87,872 for the remaining advertisement whose payment has not been released so far by the government, should be paid directly to the concerned agencies within 30 days for the date of issue of this notice,” the order stated.
The DIP also made it clear that the bills payable to different agencies can be collected from the party’s authorized representative under acknowledgment. Not only that, it also states that in future in case of variation due to any inadvertent error in categorization or calculation or any additional demand raised by the newspapers/TV/radio channels/ outdoor media/IVR agencies, the amount arrived at will also be reimbursable by AAP to the state exchequer, or to the concerned agencies, as the case may be.
The notice also mentions that the AAP violations come despite a three-member committee, sat and laid down regulations of government advertising on September 16, 2016.
“Since the same has happened even after the judgment, only way it could be reminded is to make the political party, the main beneficiary in the process of violation to pay for the expenditure incurred by the government,” the notice stated.
It further noted that the committee directed the government of Delhi to assess expenditure incurred in issuing advertisements outside the territory of Delhi on the occasion of various anniversaries or on the advertisement /advertorials in which the name of AAP is mentioned, on advertisements which publicized the views of the chief minister on the incidents that took place in other states or on those advertisement which targeted the opposition.
The committee had then directed the Delhi government to get the entire expenditure incurred reimbursed to the state exchequer.
Self Promotion
AAP government came under heavy criticism after a CAG report a few months ago. The report found that the AAP government expenditure of Rs 29 crore in releasing advertisements outside Delhi was “beyond” its responsibility.
The CAG report also said that advertisements worth Rs 24 crore released by it were in violation of financial propriety and SC regulations.
In 2015, the AAP government came under severe criticism after it was found they had set aside over Rs 500 crore for “self publicity.” Opposition parties had alleged misuse of money and accused AAP of corruption
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