A viral image of a scooter falling inside a road pothole is doing the rounds on social media. People are sharing the image claiming that the incident occurred on the Purvanchal Expressway of Uttar Pradesh, and mocking the UP Chief Minister for this.
A Facebook user posted the viral image with a caption: पूर्वांचल एक्सप्रेस-वे पर ऑटोमेटिक पार्किंग की खूबसूरत व्यस्था की गयी है। (English translation: Beautiful arrangement of automatic parking has been made on Purvanchal Expressway.)
You can check the post here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral image, and found it to be false.
Running a Reverse Image Search of the viral image, we found a news article published on the website of News24, dated September 24. The article, titled: Rajasthan: जोधपुर में प्रशासन की खुली पोल, सड़क पर चलते-चलते अचानक गड्डे में धंसी स्कूटी, देखें Video, contains the same image as the viral picture, informing that the incident occurred due to carelessness of the authorities in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
Also, a tweet published on September 24, 2022, on the official handle of Divya Mahipal Maderna, Indian National Congress MLA from Osian, Rajasthan. She had tweeted about the incident and criticised Ashok Gehlot government for such negligence by the engineers. She even tagged the Rajasthan CMO’s Twitter Handle, along with personal handles of Ashok Gehlot and Jodhpur DM.
Maderna also informs that the incident happened on the Kothi-Basni road and an elderly man got injured when his scooty got stuck on road.
The bulletin of a YouTube video, titled: Jodhpur News : बुजुर्ग समेत चलती स्कूटी सड़क में समा गई, 5 फीट गहरा गड्ढा | Latest Hindi News, published on September 24, 2022, on the official channel of News18 Rajasthan, corroborates Maderna’s claims, informing that the elderly sustained injuries on his head and shoulders, and was admitted to a nearby hospital. The road collapsed due to heavy rain, and negligence of the authorities.
Many news articles on the incident — published on the websites of media houses like ETV Bharat, Dainik Bhaskar, and Times of India — have confirmed that the incident occurred in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, and not on the Purvanchal Expressway in Uttar Pradesh.
Therefore, we can conclusively say that the viral claim, that a scooter fell in a pothole on the Purvanchal Expressway, is false.
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