A viral video of Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi's Power Minister, Atishi Marlena, addressing a press conference and announcing the 'cessation' of the free electricity subsidy scheme in New Delhi is going viral as recent.
In the video, the minister can be heard saying that Monday onwards, the subsidy scheme will not be applied to bills.
What are the users sayings?: Social media users claimed that the Kejriwal government announced the news at a time when people in the city are already facing trouble due to the flooding.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
What is the truth?: This video has been clipped from a press conference from 14 April and is being shared without proper context.
In the press conference, the AAP minister can be heard announcing that the subsidy scheme has been stopped. She says, "Those who used to get zero balance bill will get an increased bill and those who used to get a 50% off will also get an increased bill."
However, later in the conference, she mentions that the subsidy had been stopped due to a tussle between the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi VK Saxena and the AAP government.
How did we find out?: We did a Google Reverse Image Search and found a Twitter thread of the press conference posted by news agency ANI .
It matched the visuals of the viral video and the thread dated back to 14 April.
We also found news reports by India Today and Mint from the same date.
The news reports mentioned discontinuing the subsidy scheme due to the "lax attitude" of the LG's office.
What happened between AAP and the LG's office?: Atishi slammed the LG office for holding up files regarding the subsidy scheme.
She clarified that unless the file is cleared from the LG's end, the funds for the scheme cannot be released.
Delhi's Power Minister further mentioned that she tried to seek an appointment with the LG, but didn't hear back from him.
Post the presser, the LG's office dismissed these allegations as misleading and false statements.
Later that day, the free electricity subsidy scheme was extended for the year 2023-24, post the approval of the LG.
What is the subsidy scheme?: The AAP Government in the national capital provides the citizens with 200 units of free electricity, per month.
If a household has 201 to 400 units of usage a month, then a 50 percent cap is given.
Conclusion: The video is not recent. Rather, it is from 14 April when the Power Minister of Delhi, Atishi, held a press conference to announce that the scheme could stop since the LG was allegedly not approving the file for the continuation of the scheme.
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