Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Dec 20: The Lieutenant Governor has ordered the AAP to pay 97 crore for state government advertisements that were allegedly utilised for the party’s promotion instead, days after the party ran a victorious election campaign for Delhi’s civic body.
The AAP, which has been in control of the Delhi legislature since 2015, overthrew the BJP’s 15-year rule over the Municipal Corporation of Delhi earlier this month (MCD).
According to news agency ANI, Lt. Governor VK Saxena took the action on the advertising because it was claimed that the AAP had disobeyed directives from the Delhi High Court (2016), the Supreme Court (2015), and the Committee on Content Regulation in Government Advertising (2016).
To recoup the amounts used from Delhi government finances, the Chief Secretary has been given instructions.
The Lieutenant Governor, who is chosen by the federal government and in charge of key aspects of Delhi’s governance, has been accused of ‘political vendetta’ by the AAP. The national capital has a complicated, frequently contradictory, and asymmetrical distribution of authority.
Run-ins between succeeding appointments and Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP government have become commonplace, including everything from accusations of corruption to divergent directives on administrative issues.
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Manish Sisodia has also been the target of raids for alleged corruption in the policy on booze sales, which has since been revoked. One of the AAP ministers has been in jail since June on allegations of money laundering.
Before becoming lieutenant governor, Saxena served as the chairman of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission. The AAP has accused him of corruption during this time.
The AAP was ordered by the court to remove specific tweets after Saxena filed a lawsuit against the party for purported defamation on social media.
