The second wave of the Covid-19 has left infected patients gasping for breath as hospitals in some states continue to face an acute shortage of medical oxygen. Many hospitals in Delhi and few other states are currently operating on the edge due to a shortage of medical oxygen. Over the past few weeks, many breathless Covid-19 patients have died due to the unavailability of medical oxygen in hospitals situated in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharastra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Amid this, a photograph of an old woman, sitting on the road with an oxygen cylinder next to her, is being widely shared as hospitals in various states report an acute shortage of oxygen during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. This viral photo was tweeted by All India Trinamool Congress’s Banglar Gorbo Mamata Twitter handle with the caption when translated, “What is the crime of this mother Modiji?”
After a thorough research, it was found that the viral photo is from Agra, Uttar Pradesh from an incident on April 7, 2018, when a man was allegedly made to wait for an ambulance at Agra Medical College, while carrying an oxygen cylinder attached to his ailing mother.
The Times Of India covered and uploaded the very incident on April 7, 2018, on their YouTube with the caption, “Agra: Man awaits ambulance while carrying mother’s oxygen cylinders on shoulder”
A man had to reportedly wait for an ambulance at Agra Medical College while he carried an oxygen cylinder that was attached to his mother, on his shoulder. The man, along with his mother, waited for a long time but the vehicle did not show up. However, hospital authorities denied the allegation while assuring action in the matter. News agency ANI had also carried visuals of the incident and at 0:03 seconds, one can see the same image as the viral one.
However, it was found that the claim is misleading and the Rajasthan government has allocated Rs 100 crore in its annual budget for a project involving religious places of all faiths and not just Islam. In the 2021-22 budget, the Rajasthan government has allocated Rs. 100 crores for development of religious tourist circuit connecting places of worship of Sikhs, Jains, Hindus, and Muslims in order to develop ‘Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava’. On the Budget document at point number 213 on page 74 and 75, it clearly states that Rs 100 crore had been allocated to the Religious Tourism Circuit project, which aims to connect major religious places of worship of all faiths. Among the list of places Tanha peer dargah is also mentioned that is in the ad, with several other prominent places of worship of Sikh, Jains, Hindus and Muslims as marked in red. Also, the Rs. 100 crores allocated to this initiative will be spent for developing connectivity and other areas concerning the places of worship of the four religions. From this, it is evident Rajasthan government’s allocation of Rs. 100 crores for developing a religious circuit by connecting religious places of four different religions is misconstrued as the government allocating Rs. 100 crores just to develop a dargah.
This ad was published on 12th March in the Rajasthan Patrika, and the claim was spread as a fallacious context by a social media user and no solid ground whatsoever.
While this image is from 2018, it is true that hospitals in states like Maharashtra and Delhi have reportedly been facing acute medical oxygen with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urging the centre to “urgently provide oxygen to Delhi”.
