LG revives ad spend battle with Delhi govt

Delhi’s lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena has directed the chief secretary Naresh Kumar to recover ₹97 crore from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that was spent on advertisements that allegedly violated Supreme Court’s guidelines -- a move that the AAP government has said is illegal.

Delhi’s lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena has directed the chief secretary Naresh Kumar to recover ₹97 crore from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that was spent on advertisements that allegedly violated Supreme Court’s guidelines -- a move that the AAP government has said is illegal.

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Saxena’s order, the latest in ongoing hostilities between the state’s elected government and the federal government-appointed administrator, cited the findings of a Union government-appointed three-member panel which concluded on September 16, 2016, that the Kejriwal government was guilty of “misusing” taxpayers’ money on advertisements and said the party should reimburse the funds. The recovery is related to advertisements published outside Delhi.

In a fresh order, Saxena directed that legal action including attachment of properties should be carried out in case AAP doesn’t deposit the amount and ordered scrutiny of advertisements issued by the government after 2019.

Saxena’s order will escalate the running feud between the LG and the AAP government. The LG earlier this year ordered multiple probes against the AAP government including one over the excise policy in which deputy CM Manish Sisodia has been made an accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation. AAP has dismissed all the allegations. AAP’s chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj, responding to Saxena’s Tuesday order, said it was illegal, and that the LG did not have the power to recover the money from AAP.

“The order is illegal. The order has no legal value. All states ruled by the BJP including Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Goa; and Congress governments in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have also been publishing advertisements of their schemes in newspapers in Delhi. The combined cost of advertisements placed by BJP-ruled states in Delhi is ₹22,000 crore. When the BJP pays ₹22,000 crore back to the exchequer, we will pay ₹97 crore to the exchequer. LG has no understanding of the law and no shame,” Bharadwaj said in a press conference on Tuesday.

The LG’s order was issued in a file in the wake of a complaint submitted on September 12, by leader of Opposition in Delhi assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri.

“The department secretary shall take necessary action to recover ₹97.14 crore with penal interest within 15 days from AAP failing which all consequential legal action including attachment, etc. of the properties of the party shall be taken in a time-bound manner. Simultaneously, the chief secretary is directed to put up full facts of the matter before the Election Commission of India... regarding advertisements on behalf of political parties, for appropriate action,” the LG said in the file notings. HT has reviewed a copy of the LG’s order.

The Supreme Court on May 13, 2015, barred ruling parties from putting pictures of their leaders in ads publicising welfare schemes. It said government ads would only carry photographs of the President, the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India. On March 16, 2016, the court modified the order, and allowed photographs of chief ministers, governors, and state ministers.

A committee on content regulation of government advertising (CCRGA) was set up following the court’s verdict which scrutinised the city government’s advertisements on a complaint of Congress leader Ajay Maken and concluded that advertisements worth ₹97 crore were in violation of the guidelines.

While disposing of a writ petition the Supreme Court on May 13, 2015 laid down guidelines to regulate government advertising and eliminate unproductive expenditure. Later a three-member committee on Content Regulation in Government Advertising (CCRGA) was constituted by Ministry of Information & Broadcasting on April 6, 2016 to regulate the content of advertising and eliminate unproductive expenditure of government revenue on the SC direction.

CCRGA investigated the advertisements published by DIP of the Delhi government, and issued orders on September 16, 2016 identifying specific advertisements published by Delhi government that were in violation of the guidelines set by the Supreme Court, and directed the Directorate of Information and Publicity of the Delhi government to quantify the amounts spent it in such advertisements, and recover the same from AAP.

DIP ascertained and quantified that ₹97.14 crore was spent or booked by the government on account of “non-conforming advertisements”. Of this, while payments amounting to at least ₹42.26 crore had already been released by DIP, ₹54.87 crore was pending disbursal. DIP asked AAP to pay ₹42.26 crore to the state exchequer and ₹54.87 crore to the concerned agencies.

No response was available from the Delhi government or the DIP office.

Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken told HT: “On 16 September 2016 on the committee formed on the order of the Supreme Court on the basis of my petition found that Arvind Kejriwal violated 6 out of 9 rules while misusing government advertisements for political purposes. And the directions for the recovery of ₹97 crores were given.”

The LG’s order said the order to recover ₹97.14 crore hadn’t been complied with even after the lapse of five years and 8 months and called for scrutiny of all the advertisement issued after August 9, 2019 when a content regulation committee set up by Manish Sisodia started scrutinising the ads.

The LG also rejected the content regulation committee for Government of NCT of Delhi set up on Sisodia’s orders as invalid and underlined that only CCRGA which was constituted by the ministry of information and broadcasting was valid.

In a 10-point order, Saxena ordered the implementation of the 2016 order to recover ₹97 crore from AAP, scrutiny of all ads released by the government after August 2019 when a regulation committee set up by former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia started work, and a special audit of the publicity department.

The LG asked DIP to assess the expenditure incurred on the functioning of the content regulation panel set up by Sisodia and ways to recover the expenditure from those concerned within 30 days.Saxena also asked that Shabdarth — the public agency formed by the Delhi government — currently manned by 35 individuals who are working on contract out of the total sanctioned strength of 38 officials, be staffed only by government employees. The finances of Shabdarth since it came into being in 2015 shall also be audited, the LG ordered.