Parkash Singh Badal (left) and Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his former deputy chief minister son Sukhbir Singh Badal spent Rs 44 crore from the coffers of fund-crunched state to depict personalities of the father-son-duo on different television channels to hone their political chances in 2017, an election year.
The duo have been rapped by the latest report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), tabled in Vidhan Sabha yesterday. The CAG, in its report has stated that in 20 video clips, out of 60 prepared by Director of Information and Public Relations, Punjab, “the personalities of Parkash Singh Badal (referred to as Badal Saab) and Sukhbir Singh Badal were depicted.”
The CAG said this happened despite the guidelines of Supreme Court that government advertisement materials should be objective and should not be directed at promoting political interests of ruling party.
As per the report, during April 2016 to January 2017, the DIPR, Punjab produced 60 video clips, on the social welfare schemes of GOP out of which 27 video clips of duration ranging between 60 seconds and 5 minutes for television telecast at a cost of Rs 2.12 crore and incurred Rs 9.64 crore for telecast. These clips were telecast between April 2016 and January 2017 on different television channels.
“The social schemes highlighted in the clips were projected to be the personal initiatives of these two political leaders. In seven video clips, the Punjab government was referred to as ‘Badal sarkar’.”
The government also started an advertisement campaign (July 2016 to November 2016) by hiring 50 LED vans through a contract, to cover the rural/urban areas of the state. These vans showed an animated movie, Char Sahibzade, which was interspersed with short videos about government’s schemes. “In the first and second interval, Punjab government was referred to as ‘Badal Government’ and individual personalities of Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal were projected. An expenditure of Rs 12.52 crore on the organization of 6,018 shows of the movie was incurred.” The movie was provided free of cost by Shiromai Gurudwara Parbhandak Committeee (SGPC).
From May to July 2016, nine display advertisements with the title, ‘Achievements of the GOP in the past nine years’ and ‘Gratitude to Prime Minister’ were published in 85 editions of newspapers, referring to the Punjab government as ‘Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party government’. An expenditure of Rs 66.05 lakh was incurred on these advertisements.
Similarly, under the directions of the DIPR office, 1482 out of 22 DPROs had installed 3,306 hoardings/banners during September 2016 to January 2017 to advertise the achievements/ programmes of the ‘Shiromani
Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party government’ at a cost of Rs 20.21 lakh.
The DIPR had also released and broadcast 11 audio clips through 234 broadcasts on seven radio stations (September 2016-December 2016) at the cost of Rs 45.94 lakh for the advertisements of the schemes referring to Punjab government as ‘Badal sarkar’.
“The expenditure of Rs 25.60 crore was incurred on projecting either the individual personalities of the leaders of the ruling party or the political party,” said CAG report.
“An expenditure of Rs 44 crore was incurred by the DIPR on advertisements and publicity campaigns which were not in conformity with the fundamental principles governing expenditure from public funds and the guidelines approved by the SC. Weak internal controls resulted in lack of assurance on the reasonability and justification for the expenditure incurred,” the CAG report has said.
During 2015-17, an amount of Rs 236.73 crore was spent on information and publicity out of which as much as 184.94 crore (78 per cent) was spent in 2016-17, which was also the election year for the state, according to CAG.