Throwing its austerity measures to the wind, Haryana Government has spent a whopping Rs 17 crore in just one month’s time to publicise its one year achievement.
An RTI query has revealed that the State Government spent Rs 17 crore under its campaign 'Ek Varsh, Sarvatra Harsh' for publicity of its achievements following completion of BJP Government’s one year tenure in Haryana.
The staggering amount of Rs 17 crore has been spent on publicity campaigns including rallies of Chief Minister, Cabinet Ministers, advertisement published in newspapers, magazines, telecast on news channels, making of video films for promotion of Manohar lal Khattar Government’s one year achievements in October, revealed an RTI query sought by a resident of Panipat.
As per the information provided, out of the total amount, around Rs 6 crore has been spent on organising public meetings.
Notably, the BJP-led State Government had celebrated its one-year at the helm by organising public meetings, exhibitions and media campaign through social media, electronic/print media, hoardings and billboards across 21 districts of Haryana.
Manohar lal Khattar and his Cabinet Ministers had addressed public meetings across the State to apprize the people about the policies and achievements of the State Government in October. The BJP party had organised more than 20 massive public meetings which were addressed by Chief Minister, Union Ministers, Haryana Cabinet Ministers or senior State BJP leaders, to take Government’s achievements to various corners of the State.
The 61-year-old Khattar had taken oath as the first Chief Minister of the BJP Government in the State on October 26 last year. The saffron party had wrested power from the Congress in the State Assembly polls and formed the Government on its own strength.
Meanwhile, the Opposition Congress and INlD have slammed the ruling BJP for spending staggering Rs 17 crore of the tax payer's for publicity campaign in just one month. The opposition also raised questions of functioning of the State Government claiming that Haryana made no progress in terms of employment and economy under the present Government while the law and order situation continued to deteriorate.
Earlier, an RTI query sought to know number of announcements made by BJP led Haryana Government in the state in the past one year had revealed that a total of 889 announcements were made from October 25, 2014 to October 10, 2015 by the Haryana Government, out of which a maximum of 98 were made for Karnal, the home constituency of Chief Minister.
“Out of the total 889 announcements of projects or schemes, only 91 have been commissioned till October 10, 2015 while 465 are pending. As many as 315 announcements are pending while 18 have been found not feasible to be implemented in the State,” revealed the RTI query.