New Delhi: On Wednesday, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Prakash Javadekar highlighted the Narendra Modi government’s efforts in transporting coal to power plants, amid media reports of shortages across the country, with 61 thermal plants having less than four days’ stock and paper mills temporarily shutting down in Vapi, Gujarat.
He had tweeted a video of a coal-carrying train, with the caption: “4 km long Rack train with 4 engines being run on war footing basis to supply coal to power plants. This is #Modigovt & @narendramodi ji’s #NewIndia !”
4 km long Rack train with 4 engines being run on war footing basis to supply coal to power plants.
This is #Modigovt & @narendramodi ji's #NewIndia !@PMOIndia @RailMinIndia @CoalMinistry @BJP4India @BJP4Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/zx3S1u2fw6
— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) October 20, 2021
However, the video, which was tweeted en masse by users this week, and even formed the basis of a News18 report, is an old one.
Fact check
Research revealed that the video is actually more than nine months old, having first been shared by the Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) Association in early January.
“4 loaded goods train connected for the first time in Korba, Bilaspur Division. Carrying 16000 tonn [sic] of coal equivalent to 500 trucks, it ran from Korba to Bhilai. Commendable job done by the entire Operations team led by Shri Ravish Kumar Singh,” IRTS had tweeted.
According to a 23 January report by The New Indian Express, the video is of the Indian Railways’ longest freight train, the ‘Vasuki’, which combined five rakes into one 3.5 km train and undertook a seven-hour, 224 km journey from Bhilai to Korba in Chhattisgarh.
“Under the given application of technology, the leading (front) diesel loco (engine) controlled the entire train along with the simultaneous functioning of the rear loco through electronic transmission while running on the rail network,” the report added.
Javadekar was subsequently called out by several users, including fact-checker Mohammad Zubair, for sharing an old video.
An eight-month-old video of a freight train carrying coal was tweeted by BJP leader Prakash Javadekar as recent to portray that the government is supplying coal to power plants amid the ongoing shortage. #AltNewsFactCheck https://t.co/nsW8xG4ZWm
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) October 22, 2021
Three questions Mr. Javrekar:
1. What is the logic behind running 4 trains together. Are not they consuming same energy and time.??
2. Why do the crisis happened at first? Isn't the Govt. aware of the coal consumption in the country?
3. Isn't the video 8 months old?— Khela Hobe ❁ (@KhelaHobeTMC) October 22, 2021
Sir this is more than 8 months old video.https://t.co/eNNBmNC6Jb
— Mahesh koturwar マヘシ (@mpkoturwar) October 21, 2021
In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer