Fact Check: Jubilee Hills bypoll – Naveen Yadav supports CM's order to demolish slums? No, Telugu news clippings are fake

Hyderabad: The Jubilee Hills by-election is scheduled to be held on November 11. With candidates filing nominations, fake news about them has also gone viral.

In the backdrop of the bypoll, two Telugu newspaper clippings claiming that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy ordered Hyderabad Disaster Management and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) to carry out demolitions of slum areas in the city have been circulating on social media.

The first viral newspaper clipping is titled, ‘Traffic has increased… Demolish the slums’.

It reads, “Revanth Reddy remarked that even his own convoy faces traffic jams and that traffic in Jubilee Hills has worsened over the past decade, causing inconvenience even to celebrities. The chief minister instructed officials to clear the slums within six months and prepare a detailed road map. Hyderabad authorities are reportedly preparing to launch a special drive in Borabanda, Shaikpet and Yousufguda slum areas.” (Translated from Telugu)

The newspaper clipping further claims that HYDRAA Commissioner Ranganath has already issued orders to demolish illegal encroachments lacking valid documents, and HYDRAA placed an order for 500 new bulldozers with Hitachi.

An Instagram user, ‘congressdongalu’, shared the newspaper clipping. (Archive)

A post making a similar claim can be seen here. (Archive)

The same Instagram user (congressdongalu) shared another newspaper clipping, which claims that the Congress party candidate for the Jubilee Hills bypoll, Naveen Yadav, has endorsed the supposed decision by the government to demolish slums in Jubilee Hills.

The newspaper clipping states that Naveen Yadav said that there is already a master plan to demolish the slums and construct five-star hotels. The alleged report said, “He asserted that only encroachers fear HYDRAA and that HYDRAA must remain active in Jubilee Hills. He also warned that if the BRS interferes with HYDRAA, they will be crushed by bulldozers, adding that HYDRAA is the symbol of his party.” (Translated from Telugu) (Archive)

This clipping has a banner with the logo of Velugu news, the date and a link to the news report.

A post making a similar claim can be seen here. (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the viral claims are false. The newspaper clippings are fabricated.

We did not find any news reports or credible social media posts stating that CM Revanth Reddy directed the HYDRAA Commissioner AV Ranganath to demolish the slums in Jubilee Hills or that the Congress candidate for the bypoll, Naveen Yadav, endorsed the decision.

First clipping

Neither the Telangana government nor HYDRAA made any official announcements regarding demolitions in Jubilee Hills, as stated in the newspaper clipping.

The clipping does not show the name of the news outlet. The date line reads, “Jubilee Hills, October 16, News Today”.

NewsMeter contacted Ranganath, who said that the newspaper clipping is fake.

This viral clipping is similar to another fabricated Telugu newspaper clipping claiming that ‘Naveen Yadav told Muslims to take a bath every day instead of doing Namaz’. NewsMeter debunked this claim.

Second clipping

We followed the link in the banner and found that the webpage does not contain the newspaper clipping. The domain exists; however, the webpage does not have any news reports.

There are no news reports published by the Velugu news website stating that Naveen Yadav has supported the fictitious government’s decision to demolish slums in Jubilee Hills.

We contacted Naveen Yadav’s team, who told NewsMeter that the clipping is fake and confirmed that such a news report does not exist on the Velugu news website.

Naveen Yadav’s team member said that the Congress candidate did not make any such remarks and that the clipping was created using Photoshop.

Therefore, NewsMeter concludes that the viral claims are false. The Telugu newspaper clippings are fabricated.