By IANS,
New Delhi : With assembly polls in Haryana slated for October, the state Congress government has gone all out to advertise its achievements and has spent an estimated Rs.80 million of public money on this effort.
Dozens of television channels, radio stations and newspapers are full of advertisements issued by the state’s publicity department listing achievements of the Congress party and its state government headed by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
The week-long campaign started last Monday. Despite spending public money on the campaign, portrait size photos of UPA (United Progressive Alliance) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Hooda can be seen on the advertisements.
“The government has done work so what is the harm if it is advertising?” a senior government functionary said Friday.
Insiders put the estimated cost of the campaign at Rs.80 million.
Questions are being raised over the Hooda government spending public money in listing its achievements over the past four and a half years when the assembly has already been dissolved.
The opposition has also been blaming the government for splurging the exchequer’s money with the Election Commission yet to enforce the model code of conduct.
Moreover, the audience is not finding the ads appealing at all.
“The No.1 Haryana ads are in your face and very long. And the frequency with which they are repeated is blatant,” said Sushila Sharma, an executive in Delhi.
“Being in local language, the ads have little relevance for me and at times it gets annoying that which ever channel you switch on the same ads are there,” said Manav Mishra, a student here.
In the 2005 assembly elections, Congress won 67 of the 90 seats. The Congress is hoping to repeat its Lok Sabha performance where it won nine out of 10 seats.