The AAP Government’s decision to spend Rs526 crore for information and publicity in the current financial year drew sharp rebuke from the Opposition parties on Thursday which said spending public money on “self publicity” amounted to corruption.
The Government, however, strongly defended the allocation arguing that a separate head has been created for publicity and advertisement for the first time and that the figure may be less than the amount spent in previous years by various departments.
“For the first time, the Government has created a separate fund for all the expenses made by each department for information and publicity. The move is to bring transparency and every single penny will be accounted for,” Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said. He said, earlier, every department had the discretion to spend on information and publicity
and there was no consolidated fund for it.
The BJP and Congress came down hard on the AAP Government for allocating such a “huge” sum for advertisement, saying it is also a kind of corruption. “They (Delhi Government) have set aside Rs526 crore just for information and publicity which was just Rs24 crore last year. They have cut allocation for various infrastructure projects. Is it not a form of corruption by spending more money on self publicityIJ” DPCC chief Ajay Maken said.
Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken said he would take the matter to the court as the amount allocated for information and publicity could have been used to purchase 1,000 buses and construction of 10,000 low cost houses in the city.
BJP’s Vijender Gupta also slammed the AAP Government’s decision to earmark over Rs500 crore for advertisement and publicity. Former AAP leader Prashant Bhushan also criticised the Government’s move.
There are several departments of the Delhi Government whose budget is less than the budget of Directorate of Information and Publicity that stands at Rs526.74 crore.
For instance, the Government ended up allocating only Rs343.556 crore to the technical education. For sports and youth services, the Government has allocated Rs63.63 crore only.
The deputy CM had said poor healthcare infrastructure in Delhi was a major bottleneck in prosperity and quality life of the citizens of Delhi.
He even said improvement of health services in Delhi in a holistic manner, with focus both on preventive and curative care, along with making healthcare facilities accessible was another priority area of his Government. But the Government has earmarked only Rs96.70 crore for family welfare and Rs350 crore for the critical nutrition.
The budgetary allocation for housing has been pegged at Rs268.95 crore. The allocation for labour and employment is a meager Rs208.068 crore.
It is noted that the AAP Government, which has time and again been claiming that education and health are its priority areas, and had also been criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modii for his high-profile publicity blitz he had launched during the lok Sabha elections has now accorded top priority to information and publicity in its maiden budget.