UP Chief Minister designate, even before taking oath on Mar 15, rightly ordered immediate removal of congratulatory hoardings emerged overnight on his sweeping polls to state-assembly. It has become a dirty fashion to waste money by putting posters and hoardings to flatter politicians not only on their winning elections, but also on their birthdays. There should be some legislation to prevent such wastage of money on such unproductive items which also deface walls.
Political rulers like Mayawati have even misused huge public money by spending heavily on newspaper-advertisements and government-funded functions to celebrate their own birthdays. Even anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare was once held guilty of corruption by PB Sawant Commission for spending about from his Non-Government-Organisation (NGO) for his own birthday-celebrations, even though some individuals later compensated the said amount to the concerned NGO. On this account, all our political rulers spending huge money either from public exchequers or party funds and otherwise on celebrations and photo-publicity for birthdays of their own and/or their political mentors can even be booked under charges of corruption.
A petition against misuse of public-money on photo-publicity of political rulers through costly advertisements has been pending before the Supreme Court for several years. Instead of awaiting court-order, legislation should be enacted both for centre and states to impose a complete ban on publishing photos of living personalities in government-advertisements.
Madhu Agrawal
Delhi