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Deposit Rs 163 crore in 10 days for political advertisements: Delhi govt to AAP | Delhi News



NEW DELHI: Delhi government has served notice of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday, giving them 10 days to deposit Rs 163.6 crore for political ads published allegedly under the guise of government advertising during 2016-17 at public expense.
Alleging that the ads had violated Supreme Court guidelines, the Delhi government’s director of information and publicity (DIP) said “necessary action” would be taken according to the law if funds were not available. deposited in the state treasury for a certain period of time. Sources say the department may seal off AAP’s headquarters at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg.
“The recall notice issued by the clerk (informative and public) obliges AAP to pay the amount within 10 days. If the AAP convenor fails to do so, all consequential legal actions, including attachment of AAP assets, will be taken,” an official said.
Although the AAP did not have an immediate response, the party had earlier accused lieutenant colonel governor VK Saxena of ordering the recall at the behest of the BJP and stated that he had no authority to issue such an order.
By order on December 19, DIP sent notice to AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal of the withdrawal of Rs 163.62 crore. Officials said the amount consisted of Rs 99.31 crore as principal and Rs 64.31 crore as penalty interest.
The sources added that the government’s audit directorate has also sent a team to conduct an audit of all such political ads published by the DIP and its advertising agency, Shabdarth, after the 31st. March 2017.
The notice was issued “by order of the Delhi High Court of 10/08/2016, a follow-up order of the Three-Member Commission on the Regulation of Content for Government Advertising, dated 16/09/2016 and order dated March 31, 2017 of the DIP, affecting the Supreme Court and CCRGA orders,” the officials said.
By order of the Supreme Court in May 2015 of a series of petitions to restrict the Center and all state governments from using public funds for advertisements intended to show individual officials government or a party, CCRGA was established by the Union Ministry of Information and Communications in April 2016 to regulate advertising content and eliminate inefficient spending of government revenue but government AAP.
Officials said the CCRGA had investigated the complaint by Parliament Ajay Maken and found specific advertisements by the Delhi government that “seriously violated” the principles set forth by the supreme court. It then instructs DIP to quantify the amount spent on those ads and collect the same amount from AAP.
Officials said the DIP had calculated that Rs 97.14 crore (Rs 97,14,69,137) was spent on “inappropriate” ads that violated the SC order. Of these, DIP announced a payout of Rs 42.26 crore (Rs 42,26,81,265) for publications through its advertising agency while Rs 54.87 crore (Rs 54,87,87,872) ) is still pending.
Although the DIP directed the AAP convenor to pay Rs 42.26 crore to the state budget in March 2017 and directly pay the pending amount of Rs 54.87 crore to advertising or publication companies relevant within 30 days, but the party failed to comply.

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