Tuesday 22 July 2014

UPA spends Rs 380 crores on publicity in March 2014

Wastage of public money during General elections is not new in India. This can be seen from the fact that the UPA Govt spent almost Rs 380 cr in publicity in the month of March 2014 just before the announcement of the General Elections. Overall it spent close to a whopping Rs 2048 cr in the last 37 months of UPA 2 governance and approximately spent Rs 55.35 cr every month. This has been revealed in a data provided by the govt in reply to the query of RTI Activist Anil Galgali.

RTI Activist Anil Galgali had filed a query with the Central Govt seeking details of expenses incurred in the publicity and advertising in the last 3 years of UPA rule. In a reply to the query Shri A K Srivastava, the Central Information Officer of the Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting provided details of expenses on advertising campaign of various programs under taken by the Govt of India. The details of last 37 months starting from March 2011 to March 2014 were provided for expenses like campaign on Bharat Nirman and like wise programs in Print, Electronic Media, E Paper sites and Social Media. In the period of 37 months Rs 1318 crore 2 Lakh 44 Thousand 403 was spent in Print Media, where as Rs 729 Cr 88 Lakh 70 Thousand 837 was spent of Electronic media, E Paper sites and Social Media.

With the nearing of the Loksabha polls the Dr Manmohan Singh led UPA govt spent Rs 379 Cr 53 Lakh 26 Thousand 936 in March 2014 itself, in which Rs 250 Cr 84 Lakh 64 Thousand 844 was spent in Print Media & Rs 128 Cr 68 Lakhs 62 Thousand 092 in Electronic Media, E Paper sites & Social Media. From the data it can also be understood that the Govt started giving importance to the Electronic Media, E Paper sites & Social Media from December 2012 onwards, this includes the telecast / broadcast , All India Radio / Doordarshan, Community Radio, Digital Cinema, Internet, SMS & Creative.

Anil Galgali has expressed his dissapointment on the wasteful expenditure indulged in by the UPA govt in media and publicity, he further expressed his opinion that had actual work for public benefit would had been undertaken by the govt, it would not have had to spend so much money on publicity. Galgali further appealed to the New PM Shri Narendra Modi to not indulge in the similar splurge of public money which is a criminal wastage of public funds.

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