New Delhi: The Supreme Court on February 3 issued notice to the Union government on a public interest litigation (PIL) accusing the Centre and state governments of spending Rs 2,000 crore every year on projecting photographs of political leadership in newspapers in the guise of big advertisements for certain ceremonies.

A Bench comprising justice S Rajendra Babu and justice G P Mathur issued the notice to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry on a petition filed by common cause through advocate Meera Bhatia, accusing the governments of indulging in wasteful expenditure resulting in mis-utilisation of public funds.

It brought to the court's notice the recent spate of full-page advertisements placed in newspapers by different ministries of the Central as well as state governments with big photographs of politicians in the guise of functions relating to foundation stone laying, inauguration of bridges, railway links and encouraging rural handicrafts.

Giving the cost economics of such full-page advertisements, the petitioner organisation requested the court to direct the Centre and the state governments as to how this type of situation could be tackled and the public funds were not mis- utilised.

It said if public participation for an event was to be solicited by any government, the same could be done by announcements through radio and television channels.

PTI