Even as the Union government announced conducting a civil defence mock drill on May 7 across the country, a purported advisory went viral on social media which asked people to remain calm and alert in view of the current situation. The advisory includes several directives, such as keeping a cash reserve of Rs 50,000, filling fuel in vehicles, keeping a stock of medicines, food items and drinking water for two months, as well as keeping power backup sources, necessary documents, torches and candles available at home.
With the simmering tension between India and Pakistan since the Pahalgam terrorist attack transforming into a full-scale military conflict, the said advisory has gained wide circulation on social media platforms and messaging app WhatsApp.
BJP leader fro Bengal and former Union minister Debasree Chaudhury shared this advisory on Facebook and wrote, “Don’t panic, be cautious.” However, the politician later deleted this post.
In the Delhi and Ahmedabad subreddits of social media platform Reddit, people posted the viral advisory notice and wrote that it was being shared in society WhatsApp groups with the message that Prime Minister Modi would address the nation. Many users wrote that this was creating panic among the public.
Alt News also received a number of requests related to the viral advisory on its WhatsApp helpline (7600011160).
Apart from this, many users shared this advisory notice and asked whether the government had actually issued this document.
Fact Check
We performed a keyword search using terms related to the advisory notice, but did not find any credible evidence to confirm that it was indeed issued by the government. In this context, we found a tweet by the fact-checking wing of Union government’s Press Information Bureau. It is clearly mentioned here that the claims made in the viral advisory notice are fake and the government had not issued any such notice.
To sum up, the viral advisory notice is being falsely shared in the name of the government. The Indian government has not issued any such notice for its citizens.
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