Fact Check: Fake advert of Delhi govt asking people for coal donations doing rounds
Due to the shortage of coal, a power crisis has arisen in many states leading to the danger of blackouts. Expressing concern, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal recently wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
By Tejal Sinha Published on 14 Oct 2021 5:45 AM GMT
Hyderabad: Due to the shortage of coal, a power crisis has arisen in many states leading to the danger of blackouts. Expressing concern, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal recently wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
With reference to this, an advertisement supposedly from the Hindustan newspaper is being widely shared on social media, in which, along with a picture of Kejriwal, it is written, 'Help the Delhi government by donating coal to overcome the shortage of electricity' and 'Your one consolation coal can remove the darkness of entire Delhi'.
Fact Check
The claim is false.
NewsMeter noticed that this advertisement shared by some users has the word 'satire' written at the bottom. While that word has been retained by some, many others have cropped that part out before sharing it making it look like a real advertisement.
The team also noticed that the date on the masthead read July 9, 2021, Muzaffarpur, Bihar. The team searched for the epaper of Hindustan with this date published in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. We found the advertisement of the Delhi government that was printed on page 1 on the same date. The original advertisement from the epaper link read, 'Chief Minister introduced the COVID-19 assistance scheme for people who lost their family members during the pandemic.'
The team also found the same advertisement published in the Punjabi newspaper 'Jagbani' on July 9, 2021 edition which was also about the COVID-19 assistance scheme.
The fact check team in order to collect more information about Kejriwal's take on the electricity crisis performed a keyword search which led us to a report by Reuters. According to the report, "Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday warned of a power crisis in the Indian capital due to a coal shortage, which has already triggered electricity cuts in some of the country's eastern and northern states. 'Delhi could face a power crisis', Kejriwal said in a tweet in which he also shared a copy of a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagging a shortage of fuel in power plants in and around Delhi."
There has been no mention of the viral advertisement anywhere. The team finally compared the viral advertisement and the original advertisement and it can be clearly seen that by removing the information written in the original advertisement, the sentences 'Help the Delhi government by donating coal to overcome the shortage of electricity and 'Aapka ek tasalla coal can remove the darkness of entire Delhi' have been added separately.
It is therefore evident that the claim made through the viral post is false as the advertisement going viral has been morphed. The original advertisement about the 'Chief Minister COVID-19 assistance scheme' has been edited to make it look like Kejriwal is appealing to the public to donate coal for the electricity crisis.
