'Illegitimate Use Of Delhi Officers': Manish Sisodia Hits Out At BJP After Notice On 'Political Ads'

Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has hit out at the BJP, alleging illegitimate use of Delhi officers, after the AAP was issued a notice to pay up the money allegedly spent on political ads.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday accused BJP of wanting to have "unconstitutional" control over Delhi officers to have leverage over the city government.

Sisodia's charge came in the wake of a notice issued to the Aam Aadmi Party asking it to pay Rs 163.62 crore it allegedly spent on political advertisements in the garb of government advertisements.

The development came nearly a month after Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena directed the chief secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from the AAP for political advertisements it published under the veneer of government advertisements.

The recovery notice issued by the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) also includes the interest on the amount and makes it mandatory for the ruling party in Delhi to pay the whole amount within 10 days, the sources said.

"If the AAP convener fails to do so, all consequential legal action including attachment of the properties of the party shall be taken in time bound manner, as per the earlier order of the Delhi LG," a source said.

"Look at the illegitimate use of the unconstitutional control over Delhi's officers -- BJP asked Delhi government's Directorate of Information and Publicity Secretary Alice Vaz (IAS) to issue a notice to recover the cost of advertisements given in outside states from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

"In Delhi's newspapers, the advertisements of several BJP CMs of other states are published and hoardings of their CMs are all over Delhi. Will costs of those be recovered from BJP CMs? "Is it for this reason that BJP wants to keep unconstitutional control over Delhi officers?" He said in a series of tweets in Hindi.

The notice comes days after Delhi LG Vinak Kumar Saxena directed the chief secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from AAP for political advertisements published in the guise of government advertisements during 2015-2016.

Earlier on Tuesday, the office of the LG denied giving time to CM Arvind Kejriwal for an urgent meeting. This came after LG himself asked Kejriwal to meet him to discuss certain governance issues. 

Notably, Delhi LG Vinay Saxena on Monday invited CM Kejriwal to discuss certain governance-related matters. Soon after, the Delhi CM asked for an appointment on Tuesday to which the LG office said that the latter is busy till 4 PM, Friday. 

The office added that LG Saxena can meet Kejriwal only after Friday evening.