Delhi govt held 206 pc's in last 5 yrs, spent Rs 37 lakh on them

New Delhi, Mar 29 (UNI) In the last five years, Delhi government organised 206 press conferences spending more than Rs 37 lakh on them.

Between 2000 and 2005, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit held 84 media briefings, 27 by Finance Minister A K Walia, 25 by Health Minister Yoganand Shastri, 23 by Transport and Power Minister Haroon Yusuf, 20 by Food, Civil Supplies and Development Minister R K Chauhan, 15 by Education Minister A S Lovely and 12 by Industries Minister M R Singhal, official sources said.

While more than Rs 16 lakh was spent on behalf of Ms Dikshit on account of press conferences in the last five years, over Rs four lakh on behalf of Mr Walia, over Rs two lakh on behalf of Mr Singhal, over Rs three lakh on behalf of Mr Shastri, over Rs three lakh on behalf of Mr Lovely, about Rs three lakh on behalf of Mr Yusuf and over Rs five lakh on behalf of Mr Chauhan.

The maximum amount of more than Rs 12 lakh was spent in 2000-2001.

Finances for such briefings, which were mostly held in Delhi Secretariat, Delhi Assembly or India Tourism Development Corp hotels, came through planned allocation.

Besides, the state government also spent Rs 5.6 crore on issuing various advertisements in the last two years, out which Rs 54 lakh was spent only on account of putting out ads for the 'Bhagidari' scheme.

UNI IP YA DS1356