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Fact Check: Is The Government Providing Rs 2,000 Relief Fund To Each Citizen?
Writer: Aditi Chattopadhyay
Aditi, part of the fact checking team of The Logical Indian likes to read, write, cook and laugh, in short live life as it is supposed to be. What makes her fascinated is to discover the truth behind a story and more often than not, it is either fact or myth at the end.
India, 2 July 2020 12:13 PM GMT | Updated 3 July 2020 2:14 AM GMT
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The Logical Indian Fact Check team investigates the claim that a government website promises to provide a Rs 2,000 relief fund to each citizen.
A WhatsApp Forward claiming that the government will be providing a free ₹ 2,000 relief fund to each citizen of the country is being circulated on social media platforms. The message also comes with a link according to which users can 'instantly claim' the amount following a few steps in it.
Below is the entire message:
The Government has finally approved and have started giving out free Rs.2,000 Relief Funds to each citizen😍
Below is how to claim and get yours credit Instantly as I have just did now
https://bit.ly/india-relief
Note: You can only claim and get credited once and it's also limited so get your now Instantly.
The message has been extensively shared on Twitter and Facebook.
The Logical Indian received a request on the Fact check number to verify the claim.
Claim:
A government website promises to provide a Rs 2,000 relief fund to each citizen.
Fact Check:
The claim is false.
Dubious Website
When the link provided in the message: https://bit.ly/free—funds is opened, it directs to another website: https://india-relief-funds.blogspot.com/
Below is a screenshot of the website, once it opens:
The URL mentioned in the social media posts look suspicious because despite claiming to be a Government website, the URL does not have a gov.in or nic.in domain, which all government-run websites always have.
Example: https://www.mha.gov.in/
According to the norm, all government websites have the designated ministry's title written under the national emblem. This website, however, has neither logo nor name.
As seen in the Ministry of Home Affairs logo here:
Further, no matter how many times one visits the website, the page will display the text– 'Left 1936 FREE lockdown relief packages'.
On confirming that one is a citizen of India, the website asks, "How much can sustain you throughout the lockdown?"
On choosing any of the available options (2000, 5000 and 10000) the website asks, "What will you use your free Rs 2,000 for?" The options provided for this question are Food, Internet or Clothing.
On choosing any of the three options, one is redirected to a page which asks to share the message with 10 other WhatsApp Group.
To give it a more authentic touch a comment section resembling the Facebook layout is also displayed at the bottom of the page.
No matter how many times one visits the website, the name of the 'beneficiaries' and timestamp in the comments always reads 'just now' for all and '2 mins ago' for one comment. This remains constant.
Further, the number of likes and comments remain constant at '204,208 and '173,330' respectively.
Scheme Unavailable In Govt Directory
On searching 'India Relief Funds' in the Government of India web directory, no results came up. The GOI web directory is a one-point source to access all Indian Government Websites at all levels and from all sectors.
Further, on checking the URL through 'Domain Tools' it was found that it was recently updated on June 29.
So, we can conclude that it is a dubious website and there is no scheme from the govt to provide Rs 2000 to each citizen.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343
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