Sonia Gandhi, the leader of Congress has written a letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking the government to stop spending huge sums of money for the grand and lavish displays while causing little inconvenience to the people due to the functions that are organized at the anniversaries, memorials and all other leaders. She asked that such incidences be reduced to a bare minimum.

The Prime Minister's Office, PMO, had already started acting on it and would reduce the number of functions that would be held. The letter comes only two weeks after Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary on August 20.

An NGO Restoration of National Pride, recently applied for a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court, on the same issue asking the government not to indulge in "eulogising" and "glorifying" its achievements using public money. Supreme Court had also agreed to hear the petition filed along with another similar case which condemns the government for spending crores on birth and death anniversaries of leaders.

According to a popular Indian news channel Central government has spent Rs. 58 crore in three yeasrs on ads in the last three years. Of this, Rs. 15 crore was spent to honor Mahatma Gandhi with ads; while  another Rs. 12 crore had been utilised to credit BR Ambedkar.

Honoring Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi came at a hefty price tag of Rs. 22 crore approximately excluding the recent campaign on Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary.

It said that the state governments should also be adopt the same. In Andhra Pradesh alone Rs. 8 crore have been spent in three years on ads for former chief minister YSR Reddy who died in a helicopter crash in 2009. Delhi and Uttarakhand also spend huge sums without the necessity, the report revealed.

(AW- Anil)