Delhi HC seeks response from AAP government on ads

The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the AAP government to file its response on a plea of Congress leader Ajay Maken against a media blitz launched by it on completion of one year in power.

A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath sought the Aam Aadmi Party government response by February 25.

Maken, who heads Congress' Delhi units, contended that the Arvind Kejriwal's government had been running an advertisement campaign that cost approximately Rs.100 crore. However, no work was done on the ground, he said.

The Congress leader sought the high court intervention to "immediately stop these advertisements and recover the cost of all such advertisements from Arvind Kejriwal".

He also requested the court to direct the Delhi government that the money so recovered from Kejriwal be used for municipal reforms in the capital.

The petition said that while the Delhi government claimed it had "no money for the salaries of poor rag-pickers, hundreds of crores are being spent on self-glorification and political ads around the country".

Maken's lawyer Aman Pawar said a large number of advertisements were published or broadcast in various towns and cities across India by AAP government by using tax payers money.

"These outstation ads are of no use to the Delhi taxpayers or for the residents of towns and cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru etc," the petition said.

Maken filed the application in the ongoing public interest litigation wherein he said huge amounts were spent on advertisements glorifying Kejriwal and the AAP.