New Delhi: After Sonia Gandhi it is the turn of Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to pull up the Road, Transport and Highways Ministry for its highways billboards plan.
The PMO has told the Ministry that it can't put Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pictures on billboards on highways.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had planned to spend Rs 60 crore in putting up the billboards with the Prime Minister's photos.
It is the second snub for the Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath. The PMO has shot down the NHAI's proposal to put up pictures of the Prime Minister on billboards on highways.
The PMO's letter to the NHAI, a copy of which is with CNN-IBN, says it cannot be done.
Reprimanding the NHAI for its proposal, the letter says the Prime Minister's picture cannot be used by any ministry or department without specific approval of the Prime Minister's Office.
As reported by CNN-IBN last month, the NHAI had written to State Highways Authorities across 21 states to put up nearly 1500 billboards with pictures of the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi at a cost of Ts 60 crore.
Talking tough, the PMO has sent a separate letter to the Cabinet Secretary to reiterate the PMO instructions on the PM pictures to all ministries and government departments.
The PMO has asked the Cabinet Secretary to instruct all ministries and government departments that the use of the Prime minister's pictures should be done only with the prior approval of the Prime Minister's Office.
The NHAI had sent out a circular to all its contractors to put up 20x10 feet hoardings on highways under construction, every 25 kilometres. These hoardings would have pictures of the two Congress icons and a progress report of the highway.
For a government under fire for spiralling prices and doing little to control it, Kamal Nath's Rs 60 crore Congress propaganda would have been seen as an ill advised splurge.
But an austerity stressing Prime Minister has saved the Congress much embarrassment just in time.
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