Will BJP recover money for ads published from its CMs too: Sisodia

Hours after the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) served a recovery notice of Rs 164 crore to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday asked whether the BJP will recover money from its own CMs whose ads were printed in the national capital.

"The newspapers of Delhi are full of advertisements of CMs of BJP and Congress. Will the BJP get the Information Secretaries there to send notices to the CMs there?", he asked.

Dy CM Sisodia said that there can not be a bigger example of illegitimate control over officers. It is wrong to target the elected government by misusing the officers. All the governments give out advertisements.

"The BJP has exercised unconstitutional control over the officers of the Delhi Government through the Centre. The notice sent to Arvind Kejriwal is an example how BJP is misusing it for political interest. The notice has been issued that Rs 163 crore will be recovered from Arvind Kejriwal for the advertisements given by the Delhi government outside Delhi in 2016-17. If not given in 10 days, legal action will be taken. This is not the language of the officer, it is the language of the BJP. BJP is occupying the service department for this misuse", Sisodia told media during a press briefing.

On reply to the notice, Sisodia said, "Through the party secretary, we have sought information on how placing an advertisement is wrong. BJP's ads from other states are in Delhi, so we want to see what wrong ads we have given. We have written to the information secretary in this regard".