The advertisement about Delhi school results appeared on the front pages of Mumbai editions of prominent dailies on 16 July. The AAP govt called the CCRGA notice ”politically motivated”.
The Supreme Court-mandated Committee on Content Regulation in Government Advertising (CCRGA) gave a notice to the Arvind Kejriwal’s Delhi government on Monday looking for explanations on advertisement it placed in Mumbai editions of prominent newspapers on 16 July.
A statement issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the official communication arm of the Narendra Modi government, said the committee took suo motu cognizance of the points raised on social media against the Delhi government advertisement.
The advertisement on the Delhi school results was issued by the Department of Education and the Directorate of Information & Publicity of the Arvind Kejriwal government.
The PIB statement said questions were raised on social media on the need for the Delhi government to issue advertisements of its school results in Mumbai newspapers. It also said some were of the view that the advertisements were only for political messaging.
The Delhi government, be that as it may, called the notification “politically motivated”. A representative additionally said CCRGA had no jurisdiction over the Delhi government.
The committee has given the Delhi government 60 days to present its remarks. The board tried to know the expense to exchequer for the commercials, the reason for it to be published other than in Delhi, and the media plan of the said promotion with names of distributions and their versions.
It has likewise looked to know how the notice doesn’t disregard the Supreme Court’s rules of keeping away from glorification of political personalities.
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Talking about the move, central government sources said nothing justifies advertising about Delhi school results in Mumbai, that too in full-page advertisements on the front pages of different dailies.
“A state government can issue a government advertisement in another state, but as per the guidelines there has to be a reason for using or wasting government money. Are the advertisements for the Mumbai government,” a senior official in the central government asked.
A second central government official said the Centre has significantly reduced giving out advertisements to dailies as it thinks it is a wastage of money and does not give out effective messaging.
“The notice issued by CCRGA today to the Delhi government is politically motivated. CCRGA was formed in 2016 by the Central government. Since then, how many notices has it issued? Only two. Both to Delhi govt,” a Delhi government spokesperson told ThePrint in reply to a text message seeking a comment on the notice.
“It (the committee) has not issued any notice to either the central govt or to any other state govt. Every day, Delhi’s newspapers feature full page ads of UP govt or some other state govt. Just today, two full pages of ads featuring Madhya Pradesh CM and his schemes have appeared in Delhi’s papers. Since CCRGA has taken suo moto notice of the newspaper ads of Delhi government coming in Maharashtra, how come they have not taken suo moto notice of any of the ads of all other state governments coming daily in Delhi newspapers?”
The spokesperson added that the CCRGA’s “silence on all these is indicative of how it has become a tool of political vendetta”.
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