New Delhi| Vishvas Team|A screenshot of a news channel is going viral on social media in which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman can be seen giving budget speech and the ‘Big Breaking’ belt reads ‘35,000 crore LED bulbs distributed’. The post’s description claims that in her Budget Speech, Sitharaman said that 35,000 crore LED bulbs were distributed under the Ujala scheme when the total population of India is only 125 crore. Nirmala Sitharaman is being trolled on social media on this matter. In our investigation, we found that Nirmala Sitharaman never claimed in her budget speech that 35,000 cr LED bulbs were distributed under the Ujala scheme. She had said ‘approximately 35 cr LED bulbs were distributed under Ujala scheme.’
CLAIM
In the screenshot of the CNBC Awaz News channel, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman can be seen giving budget speech. The description reads, “Nirmala Sitharaman told the country while presenting the budget that the Modi government has so far distributed 35 thousand crore LED bulbs. Total population is 125 crores, means every person has got 280 bulbs. Is it a big scam or a gimmick?”
FACT CHECK
To begin the investigation, we first decided to listen to the full budget speech of Nirmala Sitharaman. In the 2 hour, 10 minute long speech Nirmala Sitharaman can be heard claiming distribution of 35 cr led bulbs under Ujala scheme at 1 hour 6 minutes and 40 seconds. In her entire speech, Sitharaman never claimed distribution of 35,000 million light bulbs.
We also read the written speech of the budget, which also says “about 35 million LED bulbs”.
According to the website of the Ujala scheme, about 35 million 31 lakh led bulbs have been made till date.
For more confirmation, we contacted CNBC Awaz’s Group Editor Prabal Pratap Singh, who told us that the related department will respond to our query soon. However, no official reply has come from them so far. This story will be updated as soon as they revert.
This post was shared by many social media users. One of them is SADA PUNJAB. The page has round 129,000 members.
Conclusion: In our investigation, we found that Nirmala Sitharaman never claimed in her budget speech that 35,000 cr LED bulbs were distributed under the Ujala scheme. She in fact said ‘approximately 35 cr LED bulbs were distributed under Ujala scheme.’
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