Fact Check: Sood conferred Special Humanitarian Award by Punjab's dept. of planning, not UNDP
By Mounika Dasari Published on 30 Sep 2020 7:39 AM GMT
Hyderabad: Several social media users have shared photos of actor Sonu Sood and claimed that the actor was awarded the Special Humanitarian Action Award by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
A Twitter user shared a screenshot of an FPJ article which stated, "Sonu Sood honoured by UNDP with special humanitarian action award; joins Angelina Jolie, David Beckham, Leonardo DiCaprio."
Fact Check:
The claim is MISLEADING.
NewsMeter found that Sood was indeed awarded the Special Humanitarian Action Award but not by the UNDP, as has been claimed. The actor was conferred the award by the Punjab government's planning department with support from the Sustainable Development Goals Coordination Centre. The actor and another businessman were awarded the Special Humanitarian Action Award under the special award category.
Many news websites claimed that the actor was conferred the award by the UNDP.
Neither the UNDP nor the SDG Action Campaign Awards websites mentioned that the actor had received the award. In fact, the selection process for the SDG action awards is ongoing and the last day of submission is 9 October 2020.
NDTV had reported that Sood had been conferred the Special Humanitarian Action Award by the UNDP. The UN body issued a statement clarifying the news. "The 'Special Humanitarian Action Award' given to Mr. Sonu Sood was conferred on him by the Department of Planning of the government of Punjab, with the support of the Sustainable Development Goals Coordination Centre. The awardees were selected based on the recommendation of an independent jury. UNDP was not involved in the selection nor in the conferring of the award to Mr. Sonu Sood. We congratulate Mr. Sood on receiving this award and appreciate his humanitarian efforts to help people in these challenging times."
The UNDP India had also tweeted the same.
Hence, the claim the Sonu Sood was conferred the Special Humanitarian Action Award by the UNDP is MISLEADING. He received the award from Punjab government's planning department.
