Ludhiana| Cong splurges on hoardings ahead of polls, Oppn dubs it ‘ ₹19-cr scam’

Ahead of the Punjab assembly elections, the ruling Congress had installed hoardings advertising government schemes, and featuring chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi across the city – a move which drew the opposition’s ire.

Slamming the Congress for misusing public funds, the opposition has termed the move as a “ ₹19-crore scam, where the outdoor media advertisement contractor was given an undue monetary benefit.”

Former councillor and Bhartiya Janata Party local bodies cell in-charge Inder Aggarwal said, “In the budget, the MC had reduced the income from advertising from ₹23 crore to ₹15 crores, citing the losses suffered by the advertisement contractor due to the pandemic. Later, under the revised budget, the advertisement budget was reduced to a mere ₹4 crore.”

“While the government is hounding the public for taxes, the contractor is getting favours , strangely at a time when the fund-starved MC is trying to take a ₹100 crore loan to carry out developmental works across the city,” he said.

The advertisements had been displayed on over 170 unipoles, and other media at all main roads and major intersections across the city, including Mall Road, Ferozepur Road, Bharat Nagar Chowk, Chandigarh Road, Haibowal, Jagraon Bridge, Gill Road, BRS Nagar, and Rajguru Nagar among other places.

These hoardings promote the recent decisions taken by the ruling party, including waiving off pending power arrears for consumers with connections up to 2KW, reducing water tariff for residential buildings, and reducing the power tariff among other welfare schemes.

The advertisements also portray the CM as an “Aam Aadmi” as he is seen with beneficiaries on the hoardings, which also have promotional slogans such as Ghar Ghar Vich Challi Gal, CM Channi/Punjab Sarkar Kare Masle Hal (All households are discussing how CM Channi and the Punjab government resolve issues).

MC officials blame government

Meanwhile, the MC officials said that the state government had directly roped in the contractor for advertisement through the state public relations department and the MC was in no way involved. The MC has to recover the advertisement charges from the contractor as per the outdoor media advertising contract, and the budget had also been reduced by the state.

Mayor Balkar Sandhu said ,”The annual income under advertisement contract was ₹23 crore. But the MC had approved ₹15 crores as income under the advertisement head, while approving the annual budget, as ₹8 crore relief had been provided by state government, citing the pandemic, and the contractor had surrendered 50% of the media. But when the budget was sent for approval from the state government, the government further reduced it to ₹4 crore only, perhaps due to some error. The MC has now sent a revised budget to the state government for approval wherein the income has again been increased to ₹15 crore.”

Govt hoardings removed after MCC comes into place

Soon after imposition of the model code of conduct, the administration and municipal corporation initiated the laborious process of removing political hoardings from the city, including those advertising government schemes and other illegal political hoardings.

However, the private hoardings of leaders such as cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, MLA Sanjay Talwar, SAD Ludhiana west candidate Maheshinder Singh Grewal among others were still seen installed in different areas. MC officials said the private hoardings are categorised as paid advertisement and information regarding the same will be shared with the election commission.

MC additional commissioner, Aaditya Dachalwal said, “Government hoardings have been removed as the model code of conduct has been imposed. The department has sought details of paid advertisement from the contractor, and the same will be shared with the election commission. The paid advertisement media in the city have to be shared equally between the parties as per the norms.”