Sambit Patra Accuses Cong of ‘Bus Fraud’, But Gets His Facts Wrong

Three out of six registration numbers shared by Patra are registered as Buses on the Transport Ministry website.

Uttar Pradesh has become a political hotbed amid the COVID-19 crisis after Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra proposed to arrange 1,000 buses to ferry migrant workers back home. Social media is abuzz with claims that many of these vehicles are not buses but cabs, autos and two-wheelers.

Now accusing the Congress party of a scam, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sambit Patra has shared a list of six vehicle registration numbers purportedly of vehicles provided by Congress, saying that none of the six vehicles is a bus.

Although the Congress did fall short of its promise of delivering 1,000 buses, Patra’s claims turned out to be partially false as three out of the six numbers provided by the BJP leader were found to be registered as buses on the website of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

THE CLAIM

In his claim, Patra stated that the “so-called” list of buses submitted by Priyanka Gandhi includes cars, ambulances and three-wheelers among others. To support his claim he shared six registration numbers with their vehicle type.

The six numbers are:

• RJ27PA9852 - Ambulance
• RJ14TD1446 - Car
• RJ40PA0186 - Three Wheeler
• RJ40PA0123 - Auto Rickshaw
• RJ34PA2938 - Auto
• RJ14PA1932 - Auto

The message is also viral on Facebook with the same claim.

WHAT WE FOUND

The BJP-led state government in Uttar Pradesh has claimed that Gandhi’s team furnished incorrect details of the buses. A state government spokesman said about 100 vehicles on the Congress list were not buses. Of the buses, 297 lacked either a fitness certificate or valid insurance papers.

We checked the details of registration numbers mentioned in the viral message on the VAHAN website and found that contrary to his claims that all six vehicles aren't buses, three out of the six numbers mentioned in Patra’s tweet are registered as buses, two are registered as three-wheelers and one as a cab.

While it’s true that Congress has not been able to deliver 1,000 buses as promised, it is also evident that Patra used misleading information to put across BJP's argument.

(With inputs from SM HoaxSlayer)

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