Vishvas News in its investigation has found that the claim of halving the price of cooking gas is false and the news clip of the newspaper going viral with this claim has been prepared with the help of editing.
New Delhi (Vishvas News). A cutting of a newspaper with President Draupadi Murmu’s picture is being shared on social media with the claim that the prices of LPG gas cylinders have been reduced. The cylinder which was available for Rs 1100 from March 25 will now be available for Rs 575.
Vishvas News in its investigation found that the viral newspaper cutting has been prepared using editing tools. Till the time of publishing the report, no announcement was made by the central government regarding halving the price of LPG gas cylinder.
What’s going viral?
Facebook user Chetlal Ravidas shared the viral screenshot on March 27, 2023. It is written on the newspaper cutting, “Breaking news LPG gas cylinder has been approved by the President.. Now the cylinder will be available for ₹ 575, not 1100. Good news for gas cylinder owners, new rule comes into force on March 25.
The archived version of the post can be accessed here.
investigation
To know the truth of the viral claim, we started searching on Google with related keywords. We could not find any credible media report to corroborate the viral claim.
According to a report published on PTI website on March 25, 2023, the government has issued a new notification regarding the Ujjwala scheme. Under this notification, now the beneficiaries of Ujjwala Yojana will get a subsidy of Rs 200 on cooking gas cylinders. The government has approved a subsidy of Rs 200 per cylinder on 12 cooking gas cylinders during a financial year to 9.6 crore beneficiaries of the Ujjwala Yojana.
Other news websites have also published this report.
According to a report published on the website of Economic Times Hindi on 14 February 2023, the Rajasthan government has announced that LPG cylinders will be given for Rs 500 from April 1 to the beneficiaries of Below Poverty Line and Ujjwala Yojana schemes.
Other news websites have also published this report.
Vishvas News started trawling the official website of Indian Oil to know about the prices of gas cylinders. According to the information given on the website, the price of non-subsidised LPG gas cylinder in Delhi is Rs 1103. At the same time, in other states of the country also, the price of LPG cylinder is more than 11 hundred.
According to a report published on March 25, 2023, on March 25, 2023, after the increase in domestic gas prices on March 1, the price of a 14.2 kg gas cylinder in Delhi had gone up to Rs 1103. At the same time, after the subsidy, the beneficiaries of the Ujjwala scheme will have to pay Rs 903 for a 14.2 kg gas cylinder.
It is clear from our investigation so far that the prices of gas cylinders have not been halved by the central government. However, some relaxation has been given by the government to the beneficiaries of the Ujjwala Yojana. Now it was the turn to know the truth of viral cutting. When we looked closely at the viral newspaper cutting, we found that it was written towards the bottom of the heading: ‘Uchhal: Guar prices were less than Rs 4,000 in July, now the average price is more than Rs 5,000 per quintal.’ This clearly meant that the original news was linked to guar prices.
Taking the investigation forward, Vishvas News started searching about this news. We found this news published two years back on Bhaskar’s website. According to the report, this news has been published from Hanumangarh, Rajasthan. On digging the e-paper of Dainik Bhaskar, we found the real news published on 23 August 2021. After this it is completely clear that the original news has been edited and changed with the help of tools.
For more information, we contacted Pramod Kumar Dixit, manager of a Delhi-based gas agency. He told us, “The viral claim is false. No such exemption has been given by the Central Government at present. However, the government has definitely given some relaxation to the beneficiaries of the Ujjwala scheme. But this scheme is not applicable for all. Even today the non-subsidised cylinders sold were priced at Rs 1103. We have not received any such circular from the government.
At the end of the investigation, social scanning was done of the user Chetlal Ravidas who posted the fake post. It was found that the Facebook user has around 343 friends.
conclusion:
Vishvas News in its investigation has found that the claim of halving the price of cooking gas is false and the news clip of the newspaper going viral with this claim has been prepared with the help of editing.
