UP govt spends over Rs18 crore on ads

The Uttar Pradesh government has spent over Rs18 crore on nine advertisements given to various news channels since September 20 last year, according to reply to an RTI query.

The advertisements were made by the UP Information Department and aired on various news channels, as per the reply to a query from convener of National RTI Forum Nutun Thakur.

The advertisements were between the duration of 40 seconds and five minutes 35 seconds.

The forum strongly criticised the "excessive expenditure by the state government on self-praise" instead of spending the money on welfare schemes for the poor.