New Delhi [India], Mar. 31 : After Delhi Lieutenant Governor directed the chief secretary to recover an amount of Rs 97 crore from Aam Admi Party (AAP) for allegedly 'splurging' government's money on advertisements and violating Supreme Court guidelines, the Bharatiya Janaat Party (BJP) on Friday accused Arvind Kejriwal-led Government of misusing public funds for their personal benefits.
BJP leader R. P. Singh told ANI that Kejriwal has misused public funds for promoting his party. "The fact is that Arvind Kejriwal has misused the public funds for promoting his party. It is a very good decision that the LG has taken. It will give a good lesson to other parties also, who spend public money for self gain. Whatever the AAP has done, that is against Supreme Court's guideline," Singh said. Singh further asserted that the money wasted will soon be recovered. Echoing similar view, another party leader Nalin Kohli said the electorate of Delhi did not vote the AAP to splurge public money and use for their personal benefits.
"The Supreme Court has given some directives with regard to advertisements,. like, whose pictures can be there, what would be the issues so that money is not wasted on advertisements.
If the AAP has gone ahead and released advertisements that don't confirm to these directives then obviously they would be responsible for it.
And if the committee has found that they have wasted public money or have tried to use public funds through the government for putting out ads they should not have put out at the first place, then they must pay for it," he added.
The LG's order came a few months after a Centre-appointed three-member committee indicted the AAP government of "misusing" public money on advertisement and violating the Supreme Court guidelines.
The committee was set up following a Supreme Court order that sought to address issues related to content regulation in government advertising (CGRA) in 2015.
The committee had forwarded its report to the chief secretary, Delhi on September 2016 for subsequent action.
Source: ANI
