Kejriwal-led government trying to hide advertising spend?
On Tuesday, Right to Information (RTI) activist Anil Galgali alleged that the Kejriwal-led Delhi government is trying to hide the expenses incurred by the party on its advertising campaigns.
Galgali had recently filed three separate RTI applications with the directorate of Informatic and Publicity (DIP) of the Delhi government seeking information regarding:
1. Amount spent by Delhi state government for advertising in newspapers and TV to target people from Delhi and other cities like Mumbai.
2. If the previous government, helmed by Sheila Dikshit, also ran similar continual ad campaigns.
3. Process adopted by Delhi government to obtain public opinion on its decision to publish those advertisements.
The activist failed to get a clear response for any of the queries.
In response to the first query, the activist was asked to inspect the information available on the record in files of the FP unit.
For the second, the public information officer stated that the advertisements were published by Shabdarth which does not deal with the information sought by the activist. Shabdarth is the publicity department set up by Delhi government.
In response to the last RTI query, Galgali was told that the information he sought was not readily available and he could personally visit the office and inspect the concerned files.
Galgali, who is an active RTI activist, labeled the responses as Delhi government’s attempt to hide the party’s advertising spend.
The activist has also sent an email to the Delhi CM asking him to upload all related information on their public website immediately.
