Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena has asked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to pay Rs 97 crore over accusations that the party published political advertisements in the guise of government advertisements.
Saxena has directed the chief secretary to recover the money as the AAP reportedly violated orders of the Supreme Court (2015) and the Delhi High Court (2016), besides norms set by the court-mandated Committee on Content Regulation in Government Advertising (2016).
According to news agency PTI, the CCRGA had earlier directed the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) to quantify the amounts spent by it on some specific advertisements which were in 'stark violation of guidelines' and recover the same from the ruling AAP.
The DIP had stated that ₹97,14,69,137 had been spent or booked on account of "non-conforming advertisements", of which, over ₹42.26 crore had already been released by the DIP. Further, ₹54.87 crore for advertisements published were still pending disbursal, the directorate said.
The AAP was directed in 2017 to pay over ₹42.26 crore to the state exchequer immediately and directly pay the pending amount of ₹54.87 crore to the advertising agencies or publications concerned within 30 days.
"However, even after the lapse of five years and eight months, the AAP has not complied with this DIP order," reported PTI.
The Delhi L-G's actions come days after AAP ran a successful campaign for Delhi civic polls. Responding to it, AAP has said that Saxena has no power to issue such orders and was "dancing on the directions of the BJP".
"The BJP's various state governments issued advertisements that have been published here (in Delhi). We want to ask: When will ₹ 22,000 crore spent on the advertisements be recovered from them.The day that money is recovered, we will also give Rs 97 crore.," AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj wad quoted as saying.
"The BJP is flustered that we have become a national party and wrested power from it in the MCD. L-G saheb is doing everything in accordance with the BJP's directions, and that is troubling the people of Delhi. The more worried Delhi's people are, the happier the BJP gets," he added.
This is the latest instance of the conflict between AAP and the Delhi L-G. Earlier, Saxena had recommended a CBI probe into the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22, in which Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was named as an accused. This drew sharp reactions from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
