A huge amount of Rs. 17 crore has been spent by the BJP government in Haryana in just 15 days, between October 21 and November 5, 2015 on the advertisements that were made to show the public, achievements of the government in the last one year.
This information has been obtained under the Right to Information Act.
This money was spent not only for showcasing the achievements but for also let the people know about the public meetings that were attended by the Chief Minister and the ministers of his cabinet.
For the ads in newspapers more than Rs. 10 crore were spent while the share of radio channels, TV and online advertising was Rs. 4.29 crore. Out of this Rs. 4.29 crore, national channels were paid Rs. 1.39 crore while regional channels were paid Rs. 1.19 crore.
28 video films were also shot to highlight the achievements of the government which cost around Rs. 1.47 crore while an amount of Rs. 25 lakh was paid for the ads in 18 magazines.
Around 6 crore went for letting the people about the public meetings of CM and his cabinet.
This information was obtained by the RTI activist PP Kapoor, he says, “The government spent huge amounts on advertisements to highlight its achievements; a wastage of public money. Some of the magazines in which advertisements were given are those affiliated to RSS.”
However, he was not provided any information on the question of number of jobs given in the last one year, “The government did not provide any details of the employment provided in the last one year. It shows that the government did not make any recruitment.”
The BJP Haryana government has justified the expenditure by stating that there was no intention of taking any political benefit behind making these advertisements, the government just wanted to spread awareness among the public about the schemes which are for their benefit.
One more reason that BJP Haryana govt. gave in its defense was that the previous Congress govt. spent Rs. 25 crore on the ads for promoting Haryana as the “number 1” state of India.
