Claim
RTI reveals that Modi’s visit to Morbi for a few hours cost ₹30 cr.
Of this, ₹ 5.5cr was purely for “welcome, event management, & photography”.
135 victims who died got ₹4 lac ex-gratia each i.e. ₹5 cr.
Just Modi’s event management & PR costs more than life of 135 people.
Rating
Explanation
A pedestrian suspension bridge in Gujarat’s Morbi collapsed on the evening of 30th October 2022 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was campaigning in the state albeit in a different city. After the collapse which killed around 140 people resulting in one of the biggest human tragedies in the country in recent times, it was announced that Prime Minister Modi would visit the city and visit the hospital to meet the injured people due to the collapse of the bridge. Modi visited Morbi on 1st November 2022 which also led to many allegations of hospitals, roads, and other infrastructure renovated hours before Modi’s visit. It was reported on some news channels as well. See here, here, and here.
After a month of Modi’s visit to Morbi, Trinamool Congress’ spokesperson Saket Gokhale tweeted that an RTI query had unearthed that Modi’s visit to Morbi cost Rs.30 crores along with a breakup of the expenses.
What’s the truth?
In our search, we found that the newspaper images used by Saket Gokhale were originally shared by a twitter user named Dax Patel (@thedaxpatel). The images were shared by Dax Patel on 30th November 2022 with a claim that an RTI query revealed that Rs.30 crores were spent during Modi’s visit to Morbi for few hours.
https://twitter.com/thedaxpatel/status/1597912582236819458
Following this, Saket Gokhale also tweeted using the same images and made the same claim on 1st December 2022. When a twitter user raised a question to Dax Patel about the origin of the newspaper cutting, he responded that the news came out in “Gujarat Samachar”.
Gujarat samachar.
— Dax Patel (@thedaxpatel) November 30, 2022
In our search in the Gujarat Samachar’s website which contains the digital version of the newspaper, there is no mention of such article which claimed that Rs.30 crores were spent during Modi’s visit to Morbi. In addition to that, there is no major, credible, and reputable news outlet reported about the ‘RTI query’.
Further, the Press Information Bureau’s Fact Check had clarified that this claim is false and no such RTI was filed.
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
There are many misinformation surrounding the collapse of the pedestrian bridge in Morbi.
Read More:
- Were Oreva hoardings covered when PM Modi visited Morbi bridge incident site?
- Morbi Bridge creates a flurry of allegations and conspiracies.
- Congress social media pages share an image of a person with Modi claiming as Oreva’s owner
Conclusion
In our search, we find that Saket Gokhale’s tweet which claimed that Rs.30 crores were spent for few hours’ visit of PM Modi to Morbi, where a pedestrian suspension bridge collapsed on 30th October 2022 killing around 140 people, is false. According to the PIB, no such RTI had been filed.
