Oxygen Wasted in Rajasthan? No, Old Clip Shows Ammonia Gas Leak

The viral video dates back to 2020 when ammonia gas had leaked out of a tanker in Rajasthan’s Jaipur.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, a video showing a leak in a tanker is being shared on social media to claim that oxygen is being wasted in Congress-ruled states to discredit the Central government in front of the world.

However, we found that the viral video dates back to 2020 and ammonia gas had leaked out of the tanker in Rajasthan’s Jaipur. A local reporter told us that since the height of the tanker was more than the underpass it was passing through, the tanker’s valve hit the roof and the leak took place.

CLAIM

The claim along with the video reads: “कांग्रेस शासित राज्यों में ऑक्सीजन इस तरह बर्बाद की जा रही है, विश्व मे सिर्फ केंद्र सरकार ओर भारत को बदनाम करने के लिए ।”

(Translated: Oxygen is being wasted in Congress-ruled states in this way, only to discredit the Central government and India.)

Several social media users shared the video on Facebook and Twitter with a similar claim, with some mentioning that it’s from Jaipur in Rajasthan. The archived posts can be viewed here, here and here.

The Quint received a query on the claim being made in the video on its WhatsApp tipline as well.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We divided the video into multiple keyframes using InVid and reverse-searched them on Yandex that led us to a YouTube video uploaded in July 2020, which carried the viral visuals.

VISUALS SHOW AMMONIA GAS LEAKING OUT OF THE TANKER

We then searched on YouTube with relevant keywords and came across a video uploaded by Rajasthan Patrika on 24 July 2020. The bulletin carried the viral visuals and mentioned that the incident took place in Jaipur’s Shivdaspura area.

Another report by Patrika mentioned that the tanker was filled with ammonia gas and had started leaking.

Dainik Bhaskar had also covered the incident and mentioned that, the tanker was getting out of an underpass when its valve bumped into the roof of the underpass and the gas started leaking. Fire brigade and police had reached the spot and the situation was reportedly brought under control after continued efforts for an hour.

Further, a local reporter, corroborating with the aforementioned details, told The Quint’s WebQoof team that the viral video is an old one and showed ammonia gas coming out of the tanker.

“Since the height of the tanker was more than that of the underpass, the tanker’s walve hit the underpass and hence the gas started leaking out of the tanker,” the reporter added.

Evidently, an old video showing ammonia gas leaking out of a tanker in Rajasthan was used to falsely claim that oxygen is being wasted in the state.

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