Maken moves HC against first year ads by AAP government

Congress leader Ajay Maken on Tuesday approached the Delhi High Court against the media blitz launched by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's government on completion of one year in power.

Maken, who heads the Delhi unit of the Congress, contended that the Aam Aadmi Party government has been running an advertisement campaign costing approximately Rs.100 crore to celebrate its first anniversary. However, no work is being done on the ground.

Filing the plea through advocate Aman Panwar, he said that on the one hand, the Delhi government has "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 petition enlisted a large number of such advertisements which are being published and aired in various towns and cities across India.

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

Maken sought intervention of the high court to "immediately stop these advertisements and recover the cost of all such advertisements personally 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.

Maken filed the application in the ongoing PIL where he had alleged in 2015 that huge amounts were being spent on advertisements glorifying Kejriwal and the AAP.