NDTV:
New Delhi: Monday, 19 January 2015.
The Central
Information Commission (CIC) has asked the Centre and Delhi's Chief Secretary
to explain what are their policies regarding the use of photos of political
leaders in government advertisements.
This follows
an RTI by noted information activist Subhash Agarwal who had also sought
information about what steps were being taken to enforce an earlier order of
the Delhi Lokayukta which had asked for curbs to this practice.
In its order,
the CIC observed that "people have a right to know the policy on
'political publicity' being funded by taxpayers."
Noting that
due to elections being held frequently the CIC also observed, "If
recommendations are properly acted upon it would check the unreasonable use of
public money in advertisements with photos of individual political leaders
giving an advantage to ruling party and disturbing the level playing field
especially during elections."
In his
petition, Mr Agarwal had also cited an RTI filed by NDTV in 2012 which had
established that the Central government has spent Rs. 58 crore on ads between
2009-2012. Rs. 15 crore had been spent on ads honouring Mahatma Gandhi; another
12 crore for ads in honour of BR Ambedkar. While adverts on the Gandhi family
(Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi) added up to roughly Rs. 22
crore.
The RTI had
also revealed how state governments had been equally generous with their
advertising expenditure - Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Uttarakhand being the big
spenders during that period.
The CIC has
posted the matter for review on February 20 to check compliance of its order.
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