Haryana govt spent Rs 190 crore on ads in 2 yrs: RTI reply

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, June 4

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.

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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.