Fact Check: Rs 5,000 reward under ‘Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Yojana’? No, Meta ad is fake
A video advertisement on Meta social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, claims that a Rs 5,000 reward can be availed through Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Yojana.
By - K Sherly Sharon
Claim:An advertisement on Meta platforms is providing a link for availing a Rs 5,000 reward through Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Yojana (PMRY).
Fact:The claim is false. PMRY is an old government scheme, currently discontinued. There is no employment scheme in the present records that is offering Rs 5,000 as financial assistance or reward.
Hyderabad: An advertisement on Meta social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, is claiming that users can avail up to Rs 5,000 in reward allegedly through ‘Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Yojana’ (PMRY).
The advertisement contains a video showing the text “Under the Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana, up to ₹5,000 will be credited to every account.” It contains the State Emblem of India. It also prompts the user to ‘Get Offer’.
The audio states, “Under the Prime Minister’s Employment Scheme, each account will receive up to Rs 5,000. To receive this amount in your account, click on the ‘Get Offer’ button”. A link is provided with the ad.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the viral claim is false. Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Yojana is an old government scheme, currently discontinued. There is no employment scheme in the present records that is offering Rs 5,000 as financial assistance or reward.
Analysis of the Facebook ad
We checked the link from the advertisement on Meta. The domain of this link is vintagevoguenation.club. This is unusual and has no connection with the Government of India, which uses domains such as ‘.gov.in’.
The website also does not contain any information related to the government scheme as claimed in the advertisement. It displays ‘Lorem ipsum’ text, which is widely recognised as placeholder content used to fill space during website development.
What is Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana?
Prime Ministers’ Rozgar Yojana (PMRY) was announced on August 15, 1993. The main objective of the PMRY scheme was to provide easy subsidised financial assistance to educated unemployed youth for starting their own enterprises in the manufacturing, business, service and trade sectors.
This scheme was discontinued in 2007-08. In 2008-09, PMRY was merged with Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP) to create a new scheme, namely Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP).
On the official website of PMEGP, we did not find any announcements or press releases regarding the distribution of money up to Rs 5,000 directly in people’s bank accounts.
The current official national employment-linked scheme is the Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana (PMVBRY). Under this scheme, incentives up to Rs 15,000 are given to newly employed workers (in instalments) and incentives to employers.
There are no provisions regarding a Rs 5,000 deposit into bank accounts.
NewsMeter has debunked several such advertisements claiming to credit money directly into citizens’ bank accounts. We have found that these advertisements are reward-based scams. You can read one of the reports here.
Therefore, NewsMeter concludes that the advertisement on Meta is making false claims.
