Indian Railways cancelling all passenger train services in March 2020 shared as recent decision - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 16, 2021
A video of an ‘ABP’ news bulletin is being shared on social media claiming that the Indian Railways had decided to cancel all passenger train services till 31 March 2021. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Indian Railways cancelled all train services till 31 March 2021.
Fact: This ABP news bulletin was telecast last year on 22 March 2020. To strengthen the COVID-19 precautions, Indian Railways cancelled all passenger trains till 31 March 2020. Ministry of Railways in a recent press release clarified that social media reports on Indian Railways cancelling all train services till 31 March 2021 as Misleading. PIB through a tweet clarified the same. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On searching for the video using the keywords  ‘31 मार्च तक सभी ट्रेनें रद्द-ABP news’, we found the same news bulletin on the official YouTube channel of ‘ABP News Hindi’. This video was published on 22 March 2020. To strengthen precautions against the COVID-19 virus, Indian Railways reportedly cancelled all passenger train services till 31 March 2020. The Government of India took this decision on the Janata Curfew day that was imposed in the country on 22 March 2020. Piyush Goyal, the Union Minister for Railways shared this information on his Twitter handle. News articles published about the Indian Government’s decision to halt passenger train services can be read here and here.
Recently, when the images and the video of the ABP news bulletin was shared as a recent decision, PIB through a tweet clarified that the Indian Railways has not taken any decision to cancel passenger train services. PIB mentioned that an old news bulletin telecast during March 2020 is being peddled now on social media with the wrong context.
एक खबर में दावा किया जा रहा है कि 31 मार्च तक सभी ट्रेनें रद्द कर दी गई हैं। #PIBFactCheck: यह खबर पुरानी है। @RailMinIndia ने 31 मार्च, 2021 तक ट्रेन रद्द करने का यह फैसला नहीं लिया है। इस पुरानी खबर को गलत संदर्भ में साझा किया जा रहा है। pic.twitter.com/YcZ8Za9Vj1
In a recent press release, the Government of India clarified that Indian Railways has not made any new announcement about cancelling the train services till 31 March 2021. Ministry of Railways rated these social media reports as Misleading. News articles published about the Government of India’s clarification can be read here and here.
To sum it up, an old news bulletin about Indian railways cancelling all passenger train services as part of the COVID-19 precautions in March 2020 is shared as a recent decision.