The AAP and the BJP today sparred in the Assembly with the latter accusing the ruling party of “unconstitutionally hiding” a purported CAG report “which exposes wastage of public money” on advertisements and demanded the House be “dissolved” over the issue.
AAP MLAs, led by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, went on an offensive following allegations made by Leader of the Opposition Vijender Gupta who insisted the city government was sitting on “the report as it exposes wastage of public money”.
Sisodia said he had no knowledge of such report and suggested the Centre was trying to “falsely implicate” the AAP.
“I dont have any knowledge about any such thing. As and when we receive any report we will table it. It seems his (Gupta) masters have written to the CAG and are expecting something on that basis. Thats why such demands are being made,” Sisodia said.
Meanwhile, NDTV reported that a whopping 85% of Rs 33.4 crores that the Arvind Kejriwal government splurged on a single ad campaign had been spent outside Delhi.
Claiming to have accessed the CAG report, the report further added that the government auditor, in a scathing report, raised several questions about the Aam Aadmi Party government’s publicity blitz in its first year in power.
In its 55-page report, the CAG reportedly accused the Delhi government of using public money on television ads that showed a person waving a broom, AAP’s election symbol, and said they referred to “AAP ki Sarkar,” which publicised the party not the government.
During the assembly session on Wednesday, the issue caused heated arguments between Gupta and AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, who at one point asked the officials to switch off the microphone at the BJP MLAs desk.
Gupta objected and asked why Khan was “behaving like the Speaker”.
Referring to Guptas demand of dissolution of the House, AAP MLA Alka Lamba said the matter should be forwarded to the privileges committee of the House so that action can be taken against him.
Speaker Ram Niwas Goel said Gupta was not raising the issue under the appropriate section. He said it was not a point of order as claimed by the BJP leader.
The four-day-session of the Assembly began on August 22.
(With PTI inputs)