AAP refuses 'pay ₹ 97 cr for ads' order; says 'Lt Gov has no such power'

New Delhi: The Lieutenant Governor has ordered the AAP to pay 97 crores for state government advertisements that were allegedly used for the party's promotion five years ago. This comes just days after the AAP ran a successful election campaign for Delhi's civic body. The Lieutenant Governor cannot issue such commands, according to the AAP, calling it "a new love letter."

The AAP, which has been in control of the Delhi assembly since 2015, overthrew the BJP's 15-year rule over the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) earlier this month.

According to news agency ANI, Lt. Governor VK Saxena took the action on the advertising because it was claimed that the AAP had disobeyed orders from the Delhi High Court (2016), the Supreme Court (2015), and the Committee on Content Regulation in Government Advertising (2016).

The Chief Secretary has been instructed to recoup the funds used from Delhi government funds.

After the directive was revealed in the media this morning, AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj questioned its legality and mentioned "other state governments' ads" as evidence.

"The BJP's various state governments issued advertisements that have been published here (in Delhi). We want to ask: When will ₹ 22,000 crores spent on the advertisements be recovered from them," the AAP MLA said, "The day that money is recovered, we will also give ₹ 97 crores."

He added, "The BJP is flustered that we have become a national party and wrested power from it in the MCD. L-G saheb is doing everything in accordance with the BJP's directions, and that is troubling the people of Delhi. The more worried Delhi's people are, the happier the BJP gets."

The Lieutenant Governor, who is chosen by the central government and in charge of several aspects of Delhi's governance, has been accused of "political vendetta" by the AAP. The national capital has a complicated, frequently conflicting, and asymmetrical distribution of power.

Run-ins have frequently occurred between the successive appointments of the BJP's Narendra Modi government and Arvind Kejriwal's AAP government, involving accusations of corruption and contradictory orders on administrative issues.

The advertisement issue dates back to 2017, when the Delhi government's Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP), acting on a directive from a committee established by the Union Government in response to court orders, said 97.14 crores had been spent or booked for "non-conforming advertisements."

"Of this, while payments amounting to over ₹ 42.26 crore had already been released by the DIP, ₹ 54.87 crores for advertisements published were still pending disbursal," news agency PTI quoted a source as saying.

In 2017, the directorate had initially asked that the AAP pay the state treasury 42.26 crores right away and the 54.87 crores that were owed to advertising firms or newspapers directly within 30 days.

"However, even after the lapse of five years and eight months, the AAP has not complied with the DIP order," the source added, as per PTI.