Bengal guv alleges fund ‘misuse’ on anti-caa ads, demands info

KOLKATA: West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has demanded information from the state government on alleged misuse of public funds on an advertisement campaign against the new citizenship law and on the authorities who sanctioned the campaign, official sources said on Saturday.

The governor’s office has sent a letter to the principal secretary, Information and Cultural Affairs, to submit to him a detailed response on the money spent on the anti-caa campaign, they said.

In a communication to the government on February 4, the sources said, Dhankhar took exception to the spending of “crores of rupees” on advertisements in print and visual media having a tagline “No CAA, No NRC, No NPR”. A concern was also raised about the involvement of senior administrative and police functionaries, including the chief and home secretaries and the DGP, in the ads by the side of the chief minister, they added.

Dhankhar had repeatedly cautioned the state government that an agitation against a valid law cannot be funded through advertisements at State expense. Later, the Calcutta High Court asked the Bengal government to suspend all such advertisements.

According to the sources, such utilisation of public funds makes a plausible case for grant of sanction of prosecution by the governor. There are instances when governors have given sanction for prosecution of chief ministers for misuse of public funds.

Apart from the A R Antulay case, in recent times then Karnataka Governor H R Bhardwaj in 2011 sanctioned the prosecution of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa by the Karnataka Lokayukta under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, for his involvement in illegal mining of iron ore in the state.