Chandigarh: The BJP government led by Manohar Lal Khattar has splurged around Rs 17 crore on the publicity blitzkrieg in the print and electronic media as part of completion of its one year in the office.
While an sum of around Rs 6 crore was spent on functions organised for the chief minister and his ministerial colleagues to publicise the first BJP government’s “achievements”, about Rs 4.25 crore was spent on strip advertisements in various newspapers, documents procured by Panipat-based RTI activist PP Kapoor show.
Besides the print media, the electronic media was given advertisement worth about Rs 4.3 crore. An amount of Rs 1.47 crore was spent on financing 28 video films prepared to publicise state government’s “achievements” under the tagline “ek varsh sarvatra harsh” (one year, happiness all around). About Rs 25 lakh were spent on advertisements in various magazines, including RSS-affiliated periodicals such as Panchjanya and Organiser.
“The huge expenditure on promoting its so-called achievements is sheer wastage of the public money that could have been better utilised on development works. In fact, the BJP government, which promised to be different from earlier regimes, seems to be following in the footsteps of the previous Congress government in wasting public money,” Kapoor alleged.
Haryana has a history of splurging public money on advertisement campaigns. Just before the last year’s Assembly elections, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s advertisement blitzkrieg “Haryana No 1”come under the scanner of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
It was alleged that public funds of over Rs 100 crore were released in the last three months of Hooda’s regime to project the Congress government, especially Hooda, through advertisements in the print and the electronic media. The petitioner, a retired Army officer, had stated that a budget of Rs 113 crore was sanctioned for media campaign for 2013-14.
Official sources said the amount pegged for publicity in the BJP regime was much less than that spent during the Hooda regime.
While an sum of around Rs 6 crore was spent on functions organised for the chief minister and his ministerial colleagues to publicise the first BJP government’s “achievements”, about Rs 4.25 crore was spent on strip advertisements in various newspapers, documents procured by Panipat-based RTI activist PP Kapoor show.
Besides the print media, the electronic media was given advertisement worth about Rs 4.3 crore. An amount of Rs 1.47 crore was spent on financing 28 video films prepared to publicise state government’s “achievements” under the tagline “ek varsh sarvatra harsh” (one year, happiness all around). About Rs 25 lakh were spent on advertisements in various magazines, including RSS-affiliated periodicals such as Panchjanya and Organiser.
“The huge expenditure on promoting its so-called achievements is sheer wastage of the public money that could have been better utilised on development works. In fact, the BJP government, which promised to be different from earlier regimes, seems to be following in the footsteps of the previous Congress government in wasting public money,” Kapoor alleged.
Haryana has a history of splurging public money on advertisement campaigns. Just before the last year’s Assembly elections, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s advertisement blitzkrieg “Haryana No 1”come under the scanner of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
It was alleged that public funds of over Rs 100 crore were released in the last three months of Hooda’s regime to project the Congress government, especially Hooda, through advertisements in the print and the electronic media. The petitioner, a retired Army officer, had stated that a budget of Rs 113 crore was sanctioned for media campaign for 2013-14.
Official sources said the amount pegged for publicity in the BJP regime was much less than that spent during the Hooda regime.
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