The coronavirus pandemic has affected normal school education of students across the globe and students are relying on online methods to attend classes. India is no exception either.
In this backdrop, a post has surfaced on the internet claiming that the government is distributing free Android smartphones to every student so that they can complete their education without any disruptions.
The text in Hindi read: “कोरोना वायरस के कारण स्कूल और कॉलेज बंद हो गए हैं और इस वजह से छात्रों की शिक्षा प्रभावित हुई है, इसलिए सरकार सभी छात्रों को मुफ्त एंड्रॉइड स्मार्टफोन प्रदान कर रही है। ताकि छात्र इंटरनेट और ऑनलाइन कक्षाओं की मदद से अपनी शिक्षा पूरी कर सकें। आप इस लिंक से अपना मुफ्त स्मार्टफ़ोन प्राप्त करने के लिए फ़ॉर्म भर सकते हैं|🙏🙏 निवेदन: 🙏 लोगो की सुविधा के लिए इस संदेश को ज्यादा से ज्यादा शेयर करें जिससे उन्हें इस सुविधा का लाभ मिल सके।”
(Translation: Schools and colleges are closed due to coronavirus and this is why students education has been affected, so the government is providing free android smartphones to all students. So that students can complete their education with the help of internet and online classes. You can fill out the form to get your free smartphone from this link
🙏🙏 Request: 🙏 Share this message as much as possible for the convenience of the people so that they can get the benefit of this facility.)
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FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact checked the above post and found it to be false.
On running a keyword search on Google, we did not find any credible report to back the above claim.
However, we found that the Punjab government on August 12, 2020, distributed free smartphones to students studying in Class 12th.
We further scanned through the official website of the Ministry of Education, but there was no such notification.
Meanwhile, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) in a tweet dated August 24, 2020, explicitly denied the above claim and clarified that the central government has NOT launched any such scheme.
दावा: कोरोना वायरस के कारण स्कूल और कॉलेज बंद होने के कारण छात्रों की शिक्षा प्रभावित हुई है, इसलिए सरकार सभी छात्रों को मुफ्त एंड्रॉइड स्मार्टफोन दे रही है #PIBfactcheck: यह दावा फर्जी है, केंद्र सरकार ने ऐसी कोई घोषणा नहीं की है. pic.twitter.com/LkFA2rMtSn
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) August 24, 2020
In conclusion, the above information proves that the claim about government distributing free smartphones to students is FAKE.
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