NEW DELHI: Delhi Government's Directorate of Information & Publicity (DIP) has slapped the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with a notice to recover Rs 163.62 crores the party spent on publicity in the garb of government advertisement with a warning that the party's office may be sealed if it fails to pay the compounded amount within 10 days.
Officials said that apart from sealing, other legal actions like attachment of properties could also be invoked if AAP fails to pay the ordered sum.
According to the notice seen by The New Indian Express, the overall sum of Rs 163.62 crore includes the principal amount of Rs 99.31 crore spent on the advertisement till March 2017 while Rs 64.31 crores are the penalty interest over it.
It stated that the money was spent on advertisements mostly published outside Delhi. It was issued on Wednesday days after Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor (L-G) V Kumar Saxena on December 20 directed Delhi chief secretary Naresh Kumar to recover the original amount AAP spent on advertisements in violation of the guidelines.
Officials said the recovery is only the implementation of the Committee on Content Regulation in Government Advertising (CCRGA)'s 2016 order where it had asked the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) to recover the sum from AAP based on a complaint filed by Congress leader Ajay Maken.
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 crores were spent on "non-conforming advertisements that violated the Supreme Court order,” the officials revealed.
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.
Meanwhile, Saxena has also ordered scrutiny of advertisements issued after 2019.
The notice is another flashpoint between Saxena and the AAP government. Both have been at loggerheads over multiple probes against the AAP government.
Meanwhile, responding to the notice, the AAP called the move arbitrary and demanded copies of the controversial advertisements alleged as publicity by the party in the garb of government ads.
"At the outset, it is submitted that the demand of Rs. 163,61,88,265 on AAP is arbitrary, perverse and contrary to facts and provisions of law and extant policies as such not accepted by AAP. Kindly provide the copies of those advertisements whose cost you seek to recover from us," the AAP mentioned in a letter written to DIP.