The Tribune: Rohtak: Monday, June 05, 2017.
The BJP
government in Haryana has spent nearly Rs 190 crore on advertisement and
publicity in about two years since taking office.
The
information has been furnished by the state Department of Information, Public
Relations and Languages in response to an RTI application.
Replying to
the RTI application filed by Subhash, the state coordinator of the Haryana
Soochna Adhikar Manch, the state authorities have maintained that the said
amount had been spent between October 20, 2014, and January 4, 2017.
As per the
information furnished by the government, an amount of Rs 172.77 crore was spent
on advertisements in the print media and Rs 11.49 crore on advertisements in
the electronic media.
Besides, Rs
5.45 crore were spent on flex-boards to publicise the government’s flagship
programmes and achievements like ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’, ‘Pravasi Haryana
Divas’, ‘Geeta Jayanti Samaroh’, ‘Haryana Summit’ and ‘Haryana Swarna Jayanti
Utsav’ during the said period.
Talking to
The Tribune here today, RTI activist Subhash said he had sought information
from the Haryana Department of Public Relations and Languages on six points
related to the advertisements issued by the state government.
“But instead
of providing the desired information, they returned the RTI application. I then
requested the SPIO at the office of the state chief secretary to supply the
said information. On January 13, 2017, the chief secretary’s office asked the
Department of Information, Public Relations and Languages to supply the
information sought by me.
Eventually,
the department provided some information on April 6, while the remaining
information was sent on May 2,” he stated.
The RTI
activist pointed out that the chunks of information supplied to him by the
department on April 6 and May 2 also indicated that there was lack of
coordination among different wings of the department.
“The
information supplied on April 6 by the Exhibition Officer of Information and
Public Relations Department, Haryana, maintained that the department had not engaged
any outsourcing agency for making the flexes.
On the other
hand, the Art Executive of the same department stated on May 2 that different
agencies on the panel of the department had prepared these on L-1 rates,” he
said.