The Kejriwal Government has spent Rs 1106.02 crore on advertisement, in the last three financial years which include Rs 297.70 crore in 2020-21; Rs 596.37 crore in 2021-22 and Rs 211 crore in 2022-23. The budget for publicity in the current fiscal year is Rs 557.24 crore and the above amounts do not include the advertisement money spend by Delhi government Boards, Corporations and autonomous bodies , like DJB, DTC, DSIIDC, DTTDC, Academies and Universities, writes former IAS officer V.S.Pandey
In yet another episode of dubious behaviour, the Kejriwal government filed an affidavit before Supreme Court of India expressing it’s inability to fund the Regional Rapid Transport System citing shortage of funds. The Supreme Court in turn slammed the Delhi Government for expressing its inability to contribute funds for construction of the RRTS project and directed it to furnish details of funds spent on advertisements in the last three financial years.
Ironically the funds were meant for construction of the RRTS stretch that will connect the national Capital with Rajasthan and Haryana, a major development work to enable people to travel in comfort quickly.
The sad part of this story is that the Kejriwal spent hundreds of crores of rupees on advertisements in the last five years. If this is not shocking then what else should. The self- proclaimed “honest Aam Aadmi” who is neck deep involved in the now infamous Delhi Excise scam worth billions of rupees, proclaiming himself as the only “Vikas purush” burning midnight oil to bring succor to the suffering people of national capital, had been wasting the hard earned tax payers money for years to just project himself across the country to fulfill his personal ambitions only. According to information available in public domain he is the same Kejriwal whose government had expressed inability to fund the NCR Rapid Rail project, citing lack of funds, spent in the last 5 years a whopping 1,868 crore on advertisements, that is more than 31 crore per month and approximately 1.2 crore per day. Obviously this is the reason that CM of a municipality like state government with very limited powers, appears in newspaper headlines on daily basis with his face popping up every now and then from TV screens, mostly for no reason. He spent crores of rupees, not long ago, on daily basis to tell the educated people of Delhi that wearing mask is good thing and wash your hands regularly. Earlier he was teaching the Delhi citizenry how to demolish dengu. Delhi people will soon be getting some other hard life lessons from him soon, of course at the cost of billions of tax payers money. It doesn’t need rocket science to understand that once you blow up tax payers money on self-promotion, there will obviously be no resource for development work.
The SC bench hearing the matter, intrigued by the response of Kejriwal government, said that they want to get into what funds Delhi government is spending where. All funds for advertisement shall be diverted for this project.
This episode has presented before the people the true colours of a person heading a government who does nothing except his own publicity and is trying to spread his wings almost anywhere in the country by spending crores of tax payers money. According to information available in public domain, the Kejriwal Government has spent Rs 1106.02 crore on advertisement, in the last three financial years which include Rs 297.70 crore in 2020-21; Rs 596.37 crore in 2021-22 and Rs 211 crore in 2022-23. The budget for publicity in the current fiscal year is Rs 557.24 crore and the above amounts do not include the advertisement money spend by Delhi government Boards, Corporations and autonomous bodies , like DJB, DTC, DSIIDC, DTTDC, Academies and Universities.
The falsehood spread through the media will certainly not last forever but by the time it explodes, people would have suffered a lot. But the issue is why this kind of errant behaviour on the part of a government has been allowed to continue unabated. Since Kejriwal could spend more than thousand crores on his self publicity without any hindrance for nearly a decade now, it encouraged other state governments to follow this practice of spreading falsehood by misusing tax payers money. Now every now and then one finds advertisements are issued by state governments not only to inform their own people and voters but to further their political ambitions across the country by issuing advertisements worth crores to have across the country coverage. The state information and public relations department budgets are meant only to inform people about the policies, schemes and steps taken to improve welfare services and to enable people to get the benefits of such schemes and programs without any hindrance. These budgetary resources were never meant to do propaganda for the chief ministers, ministers and their political ideology and leaders. Spending tax payers money to do publicity of political parties and their leaders is strictly barred in law and comes in the category of misuse of money which is punishable under the law. But in our country everything is permitted if every one is doing it. Who will stop whom, is the question. Here comes the question of ethics , morality and obedience of law of the land. To stop this ugly and illegal practice and act of self aggrandisement of political leaders, beginning has to made some where. Hence the question raised by Supreme Court in the current matter is very timely and Kejariwal must be punished on this account itself , for he is the ringleader of this irresponsible and criminal act of wasting hard earned taxpayers money for self publicity, ignoring the public good.
(Vijay Shankar Pandey is former Secretary government of India)
