Delhi L-G asks chief secy to recover Rs 97 cr from AAP for political ads

Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has directed the chief secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from the Aam Aadmi Party for political advertisements it published in the guise of government advertisements, official sources said on Tuesday.

Identifying specific advertisements published by the government which were in "stark violation of guidelines", a Committee on Content Regulation in Government Advertising had in 2016 directed the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) to quantify the amounts spent by it in such advertisements and recover the same from the ruling AAP, they added.

The DIP quantified that Rs 97,14,69,137 had been spent or booked on account of "non-conforming advertisements".

"Of this, while payments amounting to over Rs 42.26 crore had already been released by the DIP, Rs 54.87 crore for advertisements published were still pending disbursal," a source said.

The DIP in 2017 directed the AAP to pay over Rs 42.26 crore to the state exchequer immediately and directly pay the pending amount of Rs 54.87 crore to the advertising agencies or publications concerned within 30 days.

"However, even after the lapse of five years and eight months, the AAP has not complied with this DIP order," the source said.