The Aam Aadmi Party government has set aside Rs 257 crore for information and publicity in the 2018-19 Budget tabled in the Assembly today, an increase of nearly 29 per cent compared to the previous budget.
The budgetary allocation last year under the head was around Rs 198 crore, which was later revised to around Rs 196 crore.
According to the 2018-19 Budget, the government has allocated Rs 257.42 crore for information and publicity, with an increase of around Rs 59 crore.
Advertisement budget has been a contentious area for the Arvind Kejriwal government.
In its first first budget in 2015, it had earmarked around Rs 520 crore for information and publicity, drawing severe criticism from several quarters, including Opposition BJP and Congress.
However, the government had then defended the allocation arguing the amount was appearing high as a separate head had been created for publicity and ads for the first time and allocations to several departments were combined under it.
The government presented a Rs 53,000 crore budget for financial year 2018-19.
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