Congress MP Jairam Ramesh shared a photograph of a healthcare worker in a PPE suit transporting a patient on a gurney in front of construction boards of Central Vista. Narendra Modi government’s pet project aims to redevelop a 3.2 km stretch of Central Vista. The total cost of the project is Rs 20,000 crore and work continues on Central Vista amid the raging pandemic in Delhi. No construction is allowed in the national capital but the Central Vista project has been declared an essential service.
Several others have also shared the picture.
Morphed image
Two different images have been morphed together to make it seem that the patient was carried in a gurney in front of Central Vista construction boards.
The image of the boards was found in an article on Scroll published on April 27. It was shot by Vijayta Lalwani.
The other photograph was taken by Adnan Abidi for Reuters. “A health worker wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) carries a patient suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outside the casualty ward at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, in New Delhi, India, April 24, 2021,” reads its description. The picture was inverted and used in the morphed photo.
Jairam Ramesh made another tweet after it was pointed out that the image is morphed.
Regardless of whether this is an actual photograph or a depiction, what is absolutely shocking is the Prime Minister not scrapping the Central Vista project in the middle of a devastating pandemic.
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) April 30, 2021
The Central Visa project is ongoing despite thousands of lives lost every day due to the pandemic. India is facing a shortage of medical equipment, including life-saving oxygen cylinders, and vaccines. The government has received immense flak for going ahead with the project instead of redirecting funds for essentials. However, the viral photograph is not genuine and many among those who have shared have acknowledged that it has been morphed.
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