The RTI petition was filed by activist Subhash Agarwal
The Central Information Commission (CIC) has asked the Centre and Delhi's Chief Secretary to explain what are their policies regarding the use of photos of political leaders in government advertisements.
This follows an RTI by noted information activist Subhash Agarwal who had also sought information about what steps were being taken to enforce an earlier order of the Delhi Lokayukta which had asked for curbs to this practice.
In its order, the CIC observed that "people have a right to know the policy on 'political publicity' being funded by taxpayers."
Noting that due to elections being held frequently the CIC also observed, "If recommendations are properly acted upon it would check the unreasonable use of public money in advertisements with photos of individual political leaders giving an advantage to ruling party and disturbing the level playing field especially during elections."
In his petition, Mr Agarwal had also cited an RTI filed by NDTV in 2012 which had established that the Central government has spent Rs 58 crore on ads between 2009-2012. Rs 15 crore had been spent on ads honouring Mahatma Gandhi; another 12 crore for ads in honour of BR Ambedkar. While adverts on the Gandhi family (Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi) added up to roughly Rs 22 crore.
The RTI had also revealed how state governments had been equally generous with their advertising expenditure - Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Uttarakhand being the big spenders during that period.
The CIC has posted the matter for review on February 20 to check compliance of its order.