NEW DELHI: Two different figures of AAP government’s expenditure on advertisements for the same month have emerged in separate response to RTI queries, claimed an activist. As per the documents shared by the RTI activist Vivek Pandey, the Delhi government had in its first reply to a query quoted that it had spent Rs 15.32 crore in January 2020 on advertisement. But, he said, the expenditure was shown Rs 72.60 crore in response to another RTI query for the same month.
In June, Pandey had filed the RTI to the Delhi government which sought details on month- wise amount spent over advertisement of both the present year and data for January, February and March from the previous year.
"The Accounts Branch does not maintain the records through various mediums (television, newspapers, hoarding, radio, campaign and department-wise and others) separately. The details of the total expenditure incurred on advertisement and publicity which includes print media, electronic media, internet media and others as a while under the head Advertisement and Publicity," the Directorate of Information and Publicity said, giving details that in 2020, the govt spent Rs 72.60 crore in January, Rs 23.62 crore in February and Rs 103.76 crore in March.
In response to the same query filed last November, the government had stated that it spent Rs 15.32 crore in January. The figures of next two months in both RTI replies, however, remain the same, Pandey said. This year, the government has so far spent Rs 170 crore for advertisement purposes with the maximum being Rs 92.48 crore in March.
"After the last year’s RTI reply I wanted to check how much the government has been spending on advertisements. Also I wanted to see if the government has brought down the expenditures incurred over ads. I believe instead of spending such huge amounts on ads, it should be utilised for development works," said Pandey.