NEW DELHI: Stirring yet another controversy, Lieutenant Governor (L-G) V K Saxena on Tuesday directed the Delhi Chief Secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from the Aam Aadmi Party for political advertisements it published in the “guise of government advertisements” in 2016.
Besides, he also asked the top bureaucrat to collate all advertisements published or telecasted by the Delhi government since September 2016 and be referred to the Committee on Content Regulation in Government Advertising (CCRGA) for vetting and ascertaining if they are in consonance with Supreme Court (SC) guidelines.
In a letter written to the top bureaucrat seen by this newspaper, Saxena mentioned that his directions for recovery are only the implementation of the CCRGA’s 2016 order where it had asked the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) to recover the sum from AAP. Interestingly, this order was issued on a complaint filed by Congress leader Ajay Maken.
The CCRGA was set up by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in 2016 upon SC’s direction to regulate the content of advertising and eliminate unproductive revenue expenditure by Centre and state governments.
However, despite the order, the DIP failed to recover the money from AAP. Instead, the state information and publicity body paid the recovery amount on behalf of AAP despite noting that Rs 97 crore were spent on “non-conforming advertisements that violated the Supreme Court order,” the letter revealed. Besides, the letter by L-G also accused Deputy CM Manish Sisodia of releasing money for “fraudulent settlements”.
“While payments amounting to Rs 42,26,81,265/- had already been released by DIP, Rs 54,87,87,872/- for advertisements published, were still pending disbursal. The Directorate of Vigilance (DoV), inquiring into complaints regarding this, has brought out that not only did DIP not recover amounts worth Rs 42,26,81,265/-, it also proactively paid the pending amount of Rs 54,87,87,872/-, rather than getting the AAP to pay the same, as ordered.
In 08 cases, payment of Rs 20.53 crore (approx) was made, falsely attributing it to court/arbitration orders. Further, Manish Sisodia who is the Minister of Finance, approved payment of another Rs 27 crore (approx), by entering into a fraudulent ‘compromise deed/settlement’, despite the fact that there was no litigation nor were there any direction from the courts,” the letter quoting an inquiry stated.
Reacting to Saxena’s directions, AAP said that the L-G is passing ‘illegal orders without any jurisdiction’. “BJP-led Centre spent Rs 22,000 crore on advertisements, why doesn’t JP Nadda step forward and tell when BJP will return this amount to the exchequer? LG is passing illegal orders without any jurisdiction, his diktat has no value in the eyes of law,” said AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj.