Fact Check: Post claiming that lockdown will again be imposed in Assam is misleading

Guwahati (Vishvas News): A post is going viral on social media where a screenshot of the breaking plate of a digital portal is viral with the claim that lockdown will again be imposed in Assam. According to the investigation by Vishvas News, the post was based on a press conference. There is really no basis for this. Meanwhile the Assam Chief Minister also took to twitter to clarify that there is no lockdown planned in Assam. So this post is misleading.

What is in the viral post?

Facebook page E News NE shared this viral post on October 19, 2021 and wrote that there could be another lockdown in Assam. The first 58 seconds of the video said state health minister Keshab Mahanta has indicated that there could be another lockdown in the state. The video shows some footage from a press conference of state health minister Keshab Mahanta.

Investigation

Vishvas News started investigating and first examined the video of the press conference addressed by state health minister Keshab Mahanta after the Cabinet meeting in Assam on October 19. The health minister never mentioned a lockdown in the press conference. The minister said in the press conference that the state government will take a decision after analysis of the post Durga puja situation. The whole press conference could be seen here.

However, we noticed a news on a portal called My News NE reporting that a lockdown will be imposed in Assam again.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister asserted that there was no possibility of a lockdown in Assam in his statement to reporters during the election campaign on Oct 25. You can see the Chief Minister’s statement below –

Vishvas News contacted journalist from The Sentinel, Pallavi Saikia in this regard and shared the video. She told us that it was completely misleading. No one has said or predicted a lockdown in Assam. This news is made only on the basis of speculation. When we scanned the Facebook profile of the portal E News NE which shared the news that Assam will be lockdown again on Facebook, we found that 362416 people followed the page. On the other hand this viral video has been watched by 103000 people and shared by 1000+ people.