The Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saikia on Friday said the state government should immediately make public details of financial transactions relating to the ‘Awesome Assam’ advertisement campaign, since it has now come to light that the advertisement agency is scam-tainted.
Saikia said that the proprietor of the ‘Yaap and Crayons Advertisement Agency’, Ajay Chopra, was arrested last year on the charge of perpetrating a multi-crore-rupee advertising scam in Rajasthan and is fighting five court cases in this connection.
Not only has the government engaged a tainted firm for its advertisement campaign, but it is now refusing to share information in the House
regarding payments made to the firm on the plea of “terms and conditions” of the contract.
Although it is incumbent on the government to check the credentials of any firm before engaging it to perform specific work, the Assam government either did not do so or ignored the track record of the firm for some mysterious reason.
The Opposition leader referred to the ‘zero tolerance of corruption’ promise made by the government and called for a high-level judicial enquiry into the matter.