Has anyone guessed how much money the Telengana Government has been ‘splurging’ on ads in the past few days to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the ‘new’ state’s formation?
I just pored over all the available data and concluded that the Indian TV channels charge lakhs for running commercials for units measured in seconds. More, I am totally confused why Telengana’s TV commercials are being run in Malayalam TV channels in Malayalam language as frequent as five to six times during an hour and thus frittering away funds in crores via Kerala’s channels alone.
My ‘big’ curiosity and fear is whether these ad campaigns are being run in all states like in Kerala, and if so, how much public funds must be going down the drains just to impress the millions of ingenuous people spread over the different states in the country.
Aren’t the people offended by these sorts of ludicrous acts that amount to denying their own money to the state’s developmental activities? When will we people wake up against these sheer absurdities?
Even I learnt from newspapers that Government squandering money on publicity is nothing new. In the last 16 years from 2002-03 to 2017-18, the years for which data is available, Government of India had spent close to Rs10,000 crore on publicity. Since 2013-14, the last year of the UPA government, more than Rs1000 crore has been spent on publicity.
Forget about the other governments and states. The Aam Aadmi Party that taught the Indian citizens to think rationally and to fight for their rights, has set aside Rs257 crore for information and publicity in the 2018-19 Budget for Delhi.
Where are we headed?
Rajni C
Mumbai
