Party draws flak from Opposition for the Rs 526-crore budgetary allocation
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal
New Delhi: The AAP government in Delhi, which has time and again been claiming education and health are its priority areas, and had criticised the BJP over its high-profile publicity blitz ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, has given top priority to information and publicity in its first Budget that was recently passed by the Delhi Assembly.
Giving this top priority, it has made a budgetary allocation of Rs 526.74 crores for information and publicity, far more than that given to priority sectors like technical education, family welfare, housing, nutrition, labour, employment.
Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said he would drag the government to court as the amount given for information and publicity could easily have been utilised for buying 1,000 buses and building 10,000 low-cost houses.
“They set aside Rs 526 crores just for information and publicity, while last year only Rs 24 crore was spent on this. They cut the budget for various other infrastructure development work and they are spending money on their own workers and consultants. Is it not a form of corruption by spending more money on self-publicity?” he said.
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Vijender Gupta said the 2,200 per cent hike in the budgetary allocation for information and publicity over the previous year clearly showed the mindset of the Arvind Kejriwal governmment.
“The budgetary allocation for information and publicity was Rs 23.7 crore in 2014-15, Rs 25 crore in 2013-14, Rs 24.9 crore in 2012-13 and Rs 27.6 crore in 2011-12. Since there are no big schemes in the pipeline that need massive publicity, why such a huge budget has been earmarked by the party should be probed,” Ajay Maken said.
Pushkar slams CM for publicity drive:
AAP MLA Pankaj Pushkar, who has openly criticised the party leadership on several issues, on Thr-usday trained his guns on CM Arvind Kejriwal over allocation of Rs 526 crore for publicity.
Terming the employment of AAP workers in the Delhi government at “hefty” salaries as an “abuse of public money”, the Timarpur MLA also questioned the appointment of 21 party legislators as parliamentary secretaries. He said the AAP was in serious danger of losing its way and was on a “slippery mode”.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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