Delhi ACB to probe government advertisement contracts given to Manish Sisodia's relatives

The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) claimed today that Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's relatives were given contracts for government advertisements.

ACB Joint Commissionnner of Police Mukesh Kumar Meena levelled the charges and stated that a probe has been initiated. He added that a notice has been issued to the Directorate of Information & Publicity (DIP), Delhi, in this regard.

The DIP is entrusted with the job of informing and publicising the programmes, policies and activities of the Government of Delhi for citizens' welfare, particularly for the weaker sections of society.

Interestingly, Meena was appointed by Lt Governor Najeeb Jung against the wishes of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

There's been a feud between Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Najeeb Jung since a long time, and now there are two ACB chiefs. The AAP government alleged that the move to appoint Meena was an attempt on the part of the Union government to interfere in the functioning of the Delhi government and to protect Delhi Police from alleged cases of corruption.

Earlier, AAP's decision to spend Rs 526 crore for information and publicity in the current financial year had drawn criticism from the Opposition parties who had alleged that AAP was spending public money on "self publicity", amounting to corruption.