Supreme Court notice to I&B Ministry, 6 states on 'misuse of public money' on ads
New Delhi, Aug 31 : The Supreme Court on Friday sought response from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and six states on a plea by an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lawmaker, alleging that advertisements are being issued at government expanses for political purposes to benefit the ruling party.
The states which have been issued the notice are Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.
The bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi sought the response on the plea by AAP's Burari MLA Sanjeev Jha, who has sought a direction to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to reimburse to the Centre and the state governments concerned the money they have spent on advertisements allegedly to benefit the ruling party.
The notice has also been issued to the BJP. Telangana is ruled by the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti.
The petitioner has drawn the attention of the court towards "ex-facie violation and circumvention" of the directions issued by the top court by the Centre and the states controlled by the BJP
It has also pointed to the "gross dereliction of duty" by the committee set up by the Centre on April 6, 2016 in pursuance to the directions issued by the top court.
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KKR land Green for record-breaking Rs 25.20 crore; Shaw, Sarfaraz go unsold
Abu Dhabi (PTI): Kolkata Knight Riders splurged a record-breaking Rs 25.20 to land top Australian all-rounder Cameron Green even as Indian stars Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan went unsold in the Indian Premier League players' auction here on Tuesday.
Green surpassed compatriot Mitchell Starc (Rs 24.75 crore) to become the most expensive overseas player at an IPL auction. This was after Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings were involved in an intense bidding war for him before the latter emerged winner.
KKR also went after Venkatesh Iyer before pulling out of the race against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who fetched the services of the India all-rounder for Rs 7 crore.
As far as Green is concerned, his salary for the season would still be Rs 18 crore (USD 1.9 million) as the rest of the amount will go towards the BCCI's player development programme as per the rules of the auction for foreign players.
Green, who previously turned up for Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, has so far played 29 matches in the IPL to aggregate 707 runs and take 16 wickets.
Shaw, however, went unsold despite his fine run of form in the domestic circuit lately, and so was the case with Sarfaraz, who smashed a 22-ball 73 in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match for Mumbai on Tuesday.
Big-hitting South African batter David Miller was bought by Delhi Capitals for his base price of Rs 2 crore, but New Zealand swashbuckler Devon Conway, whose base price was also Rs 2 crore, went unsold in the auction.
Seasoned South African opener Quinton de Kock returned to his old base Mumbai Indians for a base price of Rs 1 crore.
A total of 359 players -- 246 Indians and 113 overseas players -- are part of the mini auction pool with the 10 franchises bidding to fill up a maximum of 77 slots, including 31 reserved for foreign players.
