New Delhi: Delhi LG VK Saxena has directed the Chief Secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from the Aam Aadmi Party for political advertisements for government campaigns. LG’s directions come in the wake of 2015 Supreme Court orders, 2016 Delhi High Court orders and 2016 CCRGA orders being flouted by the AAP government.
After LG’s order, Delhi BJP has called Arvind Kejriwal a leader who “promotes with public money”. The party said that Kejriwal has not been able to provide even clean water to the people of Delhi because of using public money to enhance his image. The party has demanded that Arvind Kejriwal should immediately deposit this public money in the government treasury.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said in a press conference on Tuesday that after the matter came to light, it has become clear that Arvind Kejriwal tried to make his face shine with public money. The government was repeatedly questioned in this matter, but they have been avoiding giving any answer on this. He said that this explains why the government could not even provide clean water to the people even after seven years of coming to power.
Attacking the policies of the Aam Aadmi Party, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said that the Supreme Court-appointed committee CCRGA has asked Arvind Kejriwal to deposit Rs 97 crore in the government treasury. He said that there should also be an inquiry on the matter that how much public money has been spent by Kejriwal on his personal campaign so far. It should be returned to the public.
Leader of Opposition Ramveer Singh Bidhuri said that till 2013, Delhi governments used to spend only up to Rs 18 crore annually on their publicity, but after Kejriwal came to power, this amount increased to about Rs 600 crore. The government has planned to spend even more money on advertising this year.
Bidhuri alleged that this advertisement of the government was also being run by his own party workers. In this way, public money was looted by showing expenses in the case of advertisement also. He said that this scam could not be of Rs 97 crore but of Rs 400 crore. There should be a CBI inquiry into this.