After CAG slammed Sakshi media, CBN wants 6.9 crores back

[Pekatapaparao]

After the severe indictment of the last YS Rajasekhar Reddy's government by CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) for doling out excessive Ads to two Telugu media i.e Sakshi and Surya newspapers, the Opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu demanded that the government recover the 6.9 crore rupees and 81 Lakhs from the respective managements.

Chandrababu Naidu said that since the last five years his party has been raising the issue with the government. However the late YSR doled out huge funds for the newspapers by giving out various Ads to them unnecessarily.

CAG noted that the public money shall not be utilised for the benefit of a particular person or section of the community referring to YSR promoting his son's newspaper.

The government spending on advertisements highlighting its achievements shot up to Rs 81 crore in the first nine months of 2009 from Rs 18.75 crore by the end of the Telugu Desam chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu’s, tenure in 2004. Though the rules specify that no government advertisement should be issued to papers within six months of establishment, the then chief minister YSR waived rule on the grounds that the two newspapers made a beginning with large circulation.