Assam government spends over Rs 27 crore in advertisement in 11 months

Guwahati: The Assam government has incurred an expenditure of Rs 27.23 crore on advertisements during 11 months of 2017-18 fiscal, a minister informed the state Assembly on Monday. [caption id=“attachment_4343709” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Assam Assembly. Image courtesy: assamassembly.gov.in[/caption] In a written reply to a query by AGP MLA Pabindra Deka, Assam Irrigation Minister Ranjit Dutta said the government’s total expenditure for advertisements stood at Rs 27,22,79,761 from April 2017 to February this year. On behalf of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who also holds the Information & Public Relations portfolio, Dutta said out of the total expenditure, Rs 16.79 crore had been released, while Rs 10.44 crore were due to various media houses. In addition to the spending for advertisements in media, the government had sent a proposal of Rs 1.91 crore to the finance department for putting up hoardings at public places. Giving a break-up, Dutta said Rs 21.72 crore had been spent for giving government advertisements to newspapers in the state. For the electronic media, including TV, radio, SMS services and on line, the government gave advertisements worth Rs 95.91 lakh during the first 11 months of the current financial year. The minister also informed the House that a total of Rs 4.55 crore had been spent for giving advertisements in 14 national newspapers.