AAP government spent Rs.100 crore on odd-even ads: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi spent Rs.100 crore in advertising for the "failed" odd-even traffic scheme in Delhi.

"Various reports, including Delhi government's own report, have stated that the odd-even traffic scheme failed in Delhi. But the government wasted Rs.100 crore on its advertisements only to hide the scheme's failures," BJP Rajya Sabha member Vijay Goel said.

Goel called on Delhi Chief Secretary Kewal Kumar Sharma on Monday to enquire about the advertising expenditure on the odd-even scheme.

"We met the chief secretary and gave him a letter asking about the advertising expenditure on odd-even. He has promised us that the government will revert with a reply," Goel told IANS.

Goel said if the Delhi government failed to reply, then the party would file an RTI application on the matter.

Drawing parallel with the now-defunct BRT Corridor initiated by former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, Goel said the odd-even scheme would also meet the same fate.

"Sheila Dikshit also spent huge amount of money on advertising the BRT corridor. But we all know what happened to the BRT. Same thing will happen to odd-even," he added.

Earlier in the day, the reply to an RTI application filed by advocate Aman Panwar revealed that the Delhi government spends Rs.16 lakh per day on advertising in the print media.

The RTI also revealed that the advertisements of Delhi government are published across India, including states of Odisha, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka.

--IANS

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