In eight years after attaining power at the centre there was allocation of Rs 6491.56 crores as advertisement budget to electronics n print media !
While about 22% population of the country is under poverty line, and on Hunger index globally India has slipped to 107th position with over 39.5 % children under the age of five had under weight health condition as per the National family health Survey with massive unemployment and inflation touching massive heights, the present BJP led NDA government has spent an astonishing amount in making self publicity of government’s tall claims. According to the the information given against a query, the Union state finance minister Anurag Thakur revealed during the ongoing winter session of parliament on Thursday that during the last eight years of its rule his government has given the total advertisements of Rs. 6491.56 crores to the electronics as well as the print media. Out of this total figure of Rs. 6491.56 crores – Rs. 3,260.79 crores were spent on advertisements given to electronic media and Rs 3,230.77 crores to the print media. It may be recalled that that the small and mediam newspapers are the worst sufferers as they have been fighting for justice since long. The minister was responding to the unstarred question of the CPI MP Muniyan Selvaraj in this regard. If we look at the breakup of the budget allocated the BBC table below shows that in the year the maximum budget of Rs. 609.15 crores was allocated in 2016-17 while in 20122-23 the advertisement budget allocation was the lowest to the tune of Rs. 76.85 crores.
