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| - Fact Check: Picture of platform ticket with 'Adani Railway' on it is morphed
A photo on social media is going viral with the claim that train platform tickets in Pune now have "Adani Railway" written on them.
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India Today Fact Check
The picture is morphed. The original picture does not have “Adani Railway” or the tagline. But Indian Railways did increase platform ticket price in Pune temporarily to reduce crowding in the light of the pandemic.
More often than not, the Opposition has accused the Centre of privatising government entities. The ongoing farmers’ agitation is also against alleged corporatisation of agriculture.
Amid this, a picture of a railway platform ticket is going viral with “Adani Railway” written on it in Hindi. Another line in Hindi translates to, “Railway is now our private property.” The platform ticket, apparently from Pune railway station, also mentions other general information such as date, time, ticket number and a price of Rs 50.
While sharing the picture, social media users are criticising the government for “selling” the Railways to Adani Group. Many have also commented that Adani Group has increased the platform ticket price from Rs 10 to Rs 50.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the picture to be morphed. The original picture does not have “Adani Railway” or the text about Railways being the Group’s private property. However, it is true that the Indian Railways has increased platform ticket prices to reduce crowding at railway stations in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The claim has gone viral on social media. The archive of the viral post can be seen here.
AFWA investigation
Reverse-searching the picture, we found that many users had posted the original picture in August this year. One of them was journalist Prashant Kanojia who criticised the government for increasing the price of platform ticket from Rs 5 to Rs 50.
Replying to Kanojia’s tweet, the spokesperson of Indian Railways clarified on August 18 that the price of platform ticket was increased at Pune railway station to prevent crowding and maintain social distancing due to coronavirus.
50
https://t.co/X2HuPC5HUg— Spokesperson Railways (@SpokespersonIR) August 17, 2020
At that time, Railway Board CEO VK Yadav also said that divisional railway managers were instructed to hike platform ticket prices to avoid crowds at stations. However, he’d added that the increased prices will be reviewed after the pandemic.
What’s the current price?
For further verification, AFWA reached out to the PRO of Pune Railway Division, Manoj Jhawar. He told us that the platform ticket price at Pune station is still Rs 50 and the tickets are issued only in special cases to those accompanying elderly or differently-abled travellers.
“The Indian Express” also published a report about this issue in August.
Another report by “The Indian Express” says that since February 2019, a private firm called Bharat Vikas Group (BVG) is managing Pune railway station after the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) appointed private agencies as “facility manager” at the station.
Railways, Adani and fake news
This is not the first time that industrialist Gautam Adani and his group have been dragged into misleading posts related to “privatisation of Indian Railways”.
A few days earlier, a video showing advertisements for “Fortune” products and “Adani Wilmar” on a train went viral with the claim that the Indian government has sold the Railways to Adani Group. AFWA had then debunked the claim.
In September, a similar claim went viral with a video of a moving container train with “Adani” written on it. AFWA had found this claim misleading too.
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