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| - Fact Check: After plogging pics, PM Modi targeted with old images of Banaras ghats
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found this to be a misleading claim. The images used in the viral Facebook post are not recent photographs of Varanasi's ghats. While one image is at least 10 years old, the other is three years old.
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India Today Fact Check
Pictures used in the viral post are old.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's beach-cleaning video from Tamil Nadu's Mamallapuram has generated mixed responses on social media. While some have complimented the prime minister, others have criticised him, calling it a staged photo-op event.
And now, a post by Facebook page "I.T & Social Media Cell Congress" has targeted PM Modi with a collage of two images of Varanasi ghats piled up with garbage. Modi is the Lok Sabha MP from Varanasi constituency.
A text in Hindi, "Banaras ke ghaton par photoshoot ke liye kab aa rahe hai Modi ji?" (When is Modi ji coming for a photoshoot on the ghats of Banaras?), is overlaid on the collage.
The claim along with the post says, "When is Modi ji undertaking a cleanliness drive on the Ganga ghats in the Lok Sabha constituency from which he was elected to be the Prime Minister?"
Till the filing of this story, this post was shared more than 600 times. The archived version of the post can be seen here.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found this to be a misleading claim. The images used in the viral Facebook post are not recent photographs of Varanasi's ghats. While one image is at least 10 years old, the other is three years old.
Many people have called out this post, saying the images used here are old and the ghats of Varanasi are much cleaner now.
First image
Using reverse image search, we found that the picture on the top of the collage showing a few boats and a dirty river bank with some men submerged in water has been used several times in various news articles related to pollution in river Ganga.
We located the original picture in Getty Images. The original photograph was taken by AFP staff photographer Prakash Singh on April 9, 2009.
Second image
The second image was used by news website DNA in 2016. According to this article, Varanasi was ranked among the 10 dirtiest cities in the country in 2016.
Recently, there were news reports that after the floods, the ghats of Varanasi were filled with mud and silt. Cleaning activities were carried out in full swing after the water receded.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the images used in the viral post targeting PM Modi on the cleanliness of Varanasi ghats are old.
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