The Delhi Government, formed by AAP faces a dilemma as the Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal gave directions to the Chief Secretary to recover Rs. 97 crores from the party. This amount was allegedly ‘splurged’ on extensive advertisement’s by AAP during their tenure and must be recovered within 30 days.
The Centre appointed a three member committee after the AAP violated the Supreme Court guidelines and misused the exchequer’s money for party’s advertising. The committee, directed and appointed by the Supreme Court addressed the issue based on Content Regulation in Government Advertising (CGRA) in 2015. This report has been forwarded to the GNCTD secretary for further action. The governor also said that the committee must assess other expenditures from the party and recover it from the party.
The letter had said, “Therefore, as advised by the law department and secretary (DIP,) a notice should immediately be issued to the political party concerned for recovery of the 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 the date of issue to reimburse the requisite amount to the government exchequer.”
AAP spokesperson Dilip Pandey, reacting to this issue had said that no such communication has been received by the CM’s office or deputy CM’s office or by the party members. He said, “Unless we receive such a communication, it is hard to comment on the issue.”
The committee led by Commissioner B.B. Tandon, has members Rajat Sharma, the chairman of India TV and the President of news broadcasters association and executive chairman and creative director, South Asia, Ogilvy and Mather, Piyush Pandey. The committee earlier has released a report by the Comptroller and Audit General of India (CAG) that the party has used Rs. 27 crores outside of Delhi for advertising, which is ‘beyond its line of responsibility.’
