RTI shows heavy spending by government on advertisements
8 Sep, 2012The provided in a reply to an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act shows that the Central government has spent Rs. 58 crore on advertisement in the last three years.
The data shows that Rs. 15 crore was spent on ads honouring Mahatma Gandhi and Rs. 12 crore on ads in honour of BR Ambedkar. Ads on Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi added up to around Rs. 22 crore. The RTI reveals similar trends in state governments also with Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Uttarakhand being the largest spenders.
It has been revealed that the government organises six functions to mark birth and death anniversaries at the memorials of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri. Apart from these there are other functions organised by various trusts and facilitated by the government.
Owing to this, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has asked the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in writing to drastically reduce the expenditure on the functions organised every year at samadhis and memorials. All political parties in power have been criticised for using government funds for promoting its own ideology and political interest.