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Fact Check: Did Sonu Sood Win An Award Conferred By United Nations Development Programme?

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India, 1 Oct 2020 12:43 PM GMT

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The Logical Indian Fact check team investigates the claim that actor Sonu Sood was conferred the Special Humanitarian Action Award by the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme).

A piece of news is doing the rounds on social media and being carried by news outlets which say that the actor Sonu Sood has been awarded the Special Humanitarian Action Award by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Bhai You Are The Pride And Inspiration For Mankind...More Power To You...Keep Spreading Love @SonuSood 🙏💪🇮🇳https://t.co/9Dl529ihfE pic.twitter.com/cJwwCpeyeh
— Karan Gilhotra (@Karan_Gilhotra) September 29, 2020

Actor Priyanka Chopra congratulated actor Sonu Sood by quote tweeting an update by WION News which said that "Bollywood actor Sonu Sood has now been conferred the prestigious SDG Special Humanitarian Action Award by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)"

Thank u so much for your encouraging words @priyankachopra .You are an inspiration for millions.. and I am one of them. Keep motivating the world because you are our true hero. Loads of love 💓 🙏 https://t.co/fapGxV6DC3
— sonu sood (@SonuSood) September 30, 2020

Below are screenshots of news reports which carried this piece of information.

Claim:

Sonu Sood was conferred the Special Humanitarian Action Award by the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme).

Fact Check:

The claim is misleading. Sonu Sood was conferred with the Special Humanitarian Action Award by the Punjab government's planning department with support from the Sustainable Development Goals Coordination Centre, but not the UNDP. The event was held on September 29.

Further, nowhere in the UNDP or the SDG Action Campaign Awards websites has any mention of the actor receiving the award.

Reportedly, the last day of submission for the SDG action awards is 9 October 2020.

UNDP issued a clarification on Twitter and said that the Special Humanitarian Action Award was conferred by the Punjab govt, and not the UNDP itself.

"The 'Special Humanitarian Action Award' given to Mr. Sonu Sood was conferred on him by the Department of Planning of the government of Punjab, with the support of the Sustainable Development Goals Coordination Centre. The awardees were selected based on the recommendation of an independent jury. UNDP was not involved in the selection nor in the conferring of the award to Mr. Sonu Sood. We congratulate Mr. Sood on receiving this award and appreciate his humanitarian efforts to help people in these challenging times," the statement read.