A misleading information has been doing round on social media, claiming all trains are being cancelled till March 31 and onwards. Old news clips and prints are being used to prove that it is a recent announcement by the government.
The news bulletin from ABP News has been captioned as “Indian Railways Cancels All Passenger Trains Till March 31 | ABP News.” It has been shared more than 45,000 times at the time of writing this article. The bulletin was shared by a page titled PB News, with a following of more than 18,000 users. The six minute long news bulletin breaks news about all passenger and express trains being cancelled till March 31. The following is the original news clip from ABP News.
As we began our investigation by a simple search on ABP News YouTube led us to the original news bulletin uploaded by the channel on March 22, 2020. Following is the link. Further we checked a news report that has been doing rounds and found the Hindustan Times news report was published on March 22, 2020.
Meanwhile, amid the recent reports about the special trains going to be cancelled from March 31, the Ministry of Railways on Monday (March 15, 2021) said that these news reports are ‘purely misleading’ and ‘not based on facts’. The Indian Railways informed that the wrong news clips are being circulated on social media platforms and said that they have not made any such announcement.
The Ministry of Railways in an official statement said, “Kindly refer to some news report in social media that Railways is going to cancel its trains which are currently operational from 31st March 2021 is purely misleading and not based on facts.” The statement further said, “Wrong news clips are being circulated in social media. All may please be informed that the video being circulated is last year’s news being peddled today.”
Moreover, The Ministry of Railways stated that the express trains and suburban trains currently operating as special trains will continue to run and also requested passengers to follow COVID-19 protocol while travelling.
Thus, with all our investigations and official confirmation from Ministry of Railways, Government of India, we can say that the information of train cancellation amidst second wave of COVID-19 is Fake.
NB: Don’t share or forward any misleading information on your social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, by doing so you are also becoming someone, who is creating panic and confusion among the larger mass and this is a punishable offense.
