New Delhi: Members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and several others posted images on Facebook and Twitter with the claim that a 2,500-bed facility is being prepared in Delhi’s Pragati Maidan by the Arvind Kejriwal government.
AAP MLA Praveen Kumar, party member Ramesh Mathiala and the party’s Jharkhand page also tweeted images of the facility in the national capital.
Apart from them, many AAP supporter pages on both Facebook and Twitter shared the images. The same has also been circulated on WhatsApp.
दिल्ली के प्रगति मैदान में #Corona पीड़ितों के लिए 2700 बेड बनने शुरू हो चुके है
इसी तरह सरकार 20 जून तक दिल्ली में 20,000 बेड की व्यवस्था करने की तैयारियों में जुटी है #DelhiFightsCorona pic.twitter.com/qYQdL6SlhM
— tkbhat (@bhatvicky73) June 14, 2020
Work in progress to make Pragati Maidan into a large hospital space.
Soon 2500 beds will be available in Pragati Maidan Complex.#Delhi pic.twitter.com/NQyBaGPniN
— Dheeraj Aap ( Fan Of Ak & Ms ) (@AapActive123) June 14, 2020
At the time of publishing this report, the images on social media (both on Facebook and Twitter) were shared more than 100 times.
Fact check
The images being circulated are not from Pragati Maidan but a Covid-19 facility in Mumbai. Maharashtra Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddiqui pointed out that these were taken from his constituency where he had inaugurated a 1,000-bed isolation centre in the Bandra-Kurla complex recently.
“I don’t remember visiting Delhi anytime in the recent past so clearly that’s not Delhi,” he tweeted.
I wonder how ready delhi is because that picture has ME walking inside our Covid-19 modular hospital at BKC,Bandra East – MUMBAI.
This was when we were setting the hospital up. I don’t remember visiting Delhi anytime in the recent past so clearly that’s not delhi. https://t.co/3ji4ZXRJF5— Zeeshan Siddique (@zeeshan_iyc) June 15, 2020
A member of AAP’s social media team, Piyush Kak, responded to Siddiqui’s tweet with an apology.
I personally Apologize for this post. https://t.co/p7Jx7DyDHW
— Piyushakak4 (@piyushakak4) June 15, 2020
Delhi has been working on increasing the number of beds in the city to meet any possible demand as infections rise.
Lt Governor Anil Baijal had suggested using Pragati Maidan as a makeshift Covid-19 facility. AAP leader Sanjay Singh also stated: “We have said that stadiums and places like Pragati Maidan should be taken up to ramp up capacity in Delhi.”
Delhi came under the scanner recently after many people alleged that they were denied treatment due to lack of beds in hospitals. According to the health ministry, the national capital has reported nearly 43,000 cases of Covid-19 and 1,400 deaths so far.
(In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer)