Delhi High Court to hear plea against AAP govt’s advertisements

New Delhi: Congress leader Ajay Maken's plea will be heard on 18 February at the Delhi High Court, against a media blitz launched by the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) government in the national capital on completion of one year in power.

A division bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath said on Wednesday that the plea will be heard along with the main case that will come up for hearing on Thursday.

Maken, who heads the Delhi unit of the Congress, contended that the Arvind Kejriwal's government had been running an advertisement campaign of approximately Rs.100 crore. However, no work was done on the ground till date, he said.

The petition said that while the Delhi government claimed it had "no money for the salaries of poor rag-pickers, hundreds of crores are being spent on self-glorification and political ads around the country".

Maken's has listed a large number of advertisements published or broadcast in various towns and cities across India in his petition.

"These outstation ads are of no use to the Delhi taxpayers or for the residents of towns and cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru etc.," Maken's petition said.

The Congress leader sought the high court intervention to "immediately stop these advertisements and recover the cost of all such advertisements from Arvind Kejriwal".

He also appealed to the court to direct the Delhi government that the money so recovered from Kejriwal be used for municipal development in the capital.

Maken filed the petition because of public interest litigation wherein he said a large amount of money were spent on advertisements glorifying Kejriwal and the AAP.(IANS)