28 November 2014

Closure : Curb Government Expenditure on Advertising

Last year, in the run up to the Delhi Elections, the entire NCT was bombarded with advertisements of the then government glorifying their own actions (though the campaign failed to deliver any results). Disturbed by this rampant waste of public money, I had started a petition and a Facebook war to get followers (that campaign also failed - there were less than 100 signatories). I had also written to the then Hon'ble CJI P. Sathasivam to expedite a PIL which dealt with the above cause (it's a different matter that I got the case number wrong in my letter).

Disappointed by the dismal response and no reply from the Hon'ble CJI, I did not pursue the matter and returned to working  from 11am to 8pm. Today, I saw tweet for an article that dealt roughly with the same matter. There was an itch and I figured out what happened :

Hon'ble CJI P. Sathasivam did preside over the said matter in April 2014. In his judgement, he directed that a committee be formed to suggest best practices with respect public advertisements (Para 25). In the past, the matter had come up before the SC in different shapes and forms, but not in a way that the current petition could be dismissed as "already decided" (Para 7).

The said committee submitted its report and the same was covered by the press in October 2014. The recommendations include single advertisement on birth/death anniversaries, severe restrictions before elections, audit of advertising budgets etc. The committee was set up to provide for the lack of government policy/legislative guidelines on public advertisements.

Today's article states that the government is looking to review its advertisement policy (and thus removing the above limitation in government policy). It is curious to see that the recommendations that are doing the rounds are in fact ideas of the SC committee (above paragraph). Whatever be the motivation, I am glad that we are forming policy/guidelines on this.

I had buyers remorse with respect to quitting my job and studying law. Much of that was driven by the upcoming exams (in 3 days!). Seeing this, there are no regrets. Instead, there is a goal.



No comments: