The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Congress’ ad spree flayed

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Sunday, Nov 02, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Congress’ ad spree flayed

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu has claimed that the State government has spent Rs. 15 crore on issuing advertisements in various newspapers to coincide with the State formation day celebrations on Saturday.

He said the expenditure on ten pages of advertisements, including eight-and-a-half coloured pages, in Sakshi daily owned by the Chief Minister’s son, alone was Rs. 5 crore. A norm that newspapers should not be given advertisements in the first six months of their establishment was relaxed in the case of this daily which is the mouthpiece of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, he said addressing a party meeting to mark the State rormation day.

Mr. Naidu said the government spent heavily on jacket advertisements. It hired a private agency for the job paying Rs. 72 crore. It also purchased 20 to 30 publicity vehicles which were presently parked beside the Gandhi Bhavan.

Stating that he had never used the State formation day to level political criticism against other parties, he said he was forced to do so this due to the advertisement spree by the government. Meanwhile, BJP State president B. Dattatreya and TRS legislator T. Harish Rao also criticised the Chief Minister for spending huge sum of money on glorifying his government.

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