Fact Check: TMC spokesperson spreads fake news about PM’s visit to Morbi costing Rs 30 crore

New Delhi, Dec 02: A message is in circulation stating that the trip to Morbi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cost the government Rs 30 crore. The message claims that the figure was made known through an RTI application.

One Saket Gokhale from the TMC took to Twitter and said, "RTI reveals that Modi's visit to Morbi for a few hours cost Rs 30 crore. Of this Rs 5.5 crore was purely for a welcome event management and photography. 135 victims who died in the Morbi bridge collapse for Rs 4 lakh ex-gratia each, ie Rs 5 crore. Just Modi's event management and PR costs more than the lives of 135 people."

PIB Fact Check took to Twitter and debunked this claim that has gone viral. Quoting an RTI, it is being claimed in a tweet that PM's visit to Morbi cost Rs 30 crore. This claim is fake. No such RTI response has been given, PIB Fact Check said on Twitter.

Quoting an RTI, It is being claimed in a tweet that PM’s visit to Morbi cost ₹30 cr.#PIBFactCheck

▪️ This claim is #Fake.

▪️ No such RTI response has been given. pic.twitter.com/CEVgvWgGTv

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) December 1, 2022

Saket Gokhale of the Trinamool Congress was not the only one to post this message. A Twitter user called Dax Patel had posted the same clipping yesterday. The alleged news report said that this information was revealed by the Morbi district collector's office on an RTI query made by one Deepak Patel.

Giving the break-up of the expenses, the report claimed that Rs 8 crore was spent on the painting of the hospital, cleaning, new beds and water cooler, Rs 1 crore was spent for new roads, Rs 3 crore on the PM's welcome, Rs 2.5 crore for the PM's security, Rs 2 crore for event management and Rs 50 lakh for photography.

BJP Gujarat too took to Twitter and said that no such RTI was filed. This is fake news. No such RTI has been done. No such news has been published. It is fully fabricated. TMC is a party of liars. It starts from @MamataOfficial to lowly spokespersons like, BJP Gujarat said in response to a tweet by Saket Gokhale.

This is FAKE NEWS.

No such RTI has been done.

No such news has been published.

It is fully fabricated.

TMC is a party of liars. It starts from @MamataOfficial to lowly spokespersons like you. https://t.co/759PnBweuK

— BJP Gujarat (@BJP4Gujarat) December 1, 2022

This is fake news. No such RTI has been done. No such news has been published.It is fully fabricated. @mamataofficial - your spokespersons are worst than you. Reign them in, BJP Bengal said in a tweet.

This is fake news.

No such RTI has been done.

No such news has been published.

It is fully fabricated. @mamataofficial - your spokespersons are worst than you. Reign them in. https://t.co/08gpEpj2ae

— BJP Bengal (@BJP4Bengal) December 1, 2022

OneIndia could not find any report while searching online. The Gujarati news clipping shared by Gokhale does not bear the name of the newspaper. The date of the report too is not visible. Dax Patel on the other hand claimed that it was from Gujarati Samachar. While replying to a Twitter user, Patel just named the newspaper without sharing any link.

Reports said that after talking to the web department of Gujarat Samachar, it was found that no such news item had been carried. The same report also said that after talking to some of the residents of Morbi, they learnt that no such RTI activist called Deepak Patel has been heard of.

Hence it is safe to claim that the news item with the claim that PM Modi's visit to Morbi cost the government Rs 30 crore is fake.