State govt spends ₹20L per day on ads, says Rohit Pawar
NCP MLA Rohit Pawar criticized the Maharashtra government for spending over ₹53 crore on advertisements in the first seven months of this year. He questioned the need for such high expenditure when the schemes could have been implemented effectively. The government defended the advertisements, stating that they are necessary for creating awareness among the people.
Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) MLA Rohit Pawar slammed the Shinde-Fadnavis government for its ‘over the top’ advertisement expenditure in the first seven months of this year.
Pawar took to Twitter and shared a direct account of the expenditure incurred by the state which he alleged to be around ₹53 crore in total to advertise its flagship initiative ‘Shasan Aplya Dari’ (Government at your doorstep).
“In the first seven months, the expenditure of this government on advertisement was ₹42.44 crore, which comes to ₹20 lakh per day,” said Rohit, who is the first-term MLA from Karjat Jamkhed assembly constituency in Ahmednagar.
The expenses on advertising ‘Shasan Aplya Dari’ initiative is ₹52.90 crore. In addition, another sum of ₹26 crore was spent to advertise the schemes started last year,” he added.
Chief minister Eknath Shinde launched ‘Shasan Aplya Dari’ initiative in May under which the people get benefits of all the schemes as well as various documents that are issued by the government under one roof. All the district administrations have been directed to organise two-day camps in their jurisdictions to ensure the success of the initiative and have been given a target of providing benefits to around 75,000 locals in each district under the campaign.
“What is the reason to spend so much money on advertisements if you have implemented them effectively? Another welfare scheme for the people would have been implemented in the same amount. What do you think?” Rohit asked the people.
He also claimed the government is spending ₹150 crore alone to provide protection to the legislators from the ruling coalition.
Krishna Hegde, spokesperson, Eknath Shindne led Shiv Sena said that the advertisement is necessary for awareness among the people. “The welfare schemes meant for farmers and other sections of the society need to be taken to the people thus some kind of advertisement is necessary.”
As far as the protection of MLAs is concerned, the opposition leader should listen to Rohit Pawar and immediately give up their protection provided by the government, he added.
“It has become a duty of the opposition to keep criticising the government for no reason,” Hegde commented.
