A social post accompanying an image of a newspaper clip that reports the Madhya Pradesh government’s decision to set up separate liquor stores for women is being widely circulated. As the news clip does not carry the publication date, the clip is being shared attributing it to the current government claiming that it is a recent decision. Through this article let’s fact-check the veracity of the clip shared in the post.
Claim: Madhya Pradesh government decided to introduce separate liquor stores for women.
Fact: This is old news that dates back to February 2020. The decision to set up separate liquor stores for women was taken by the Kamal Nath government. The then opposition leader Shivraj Singh Chauhan criticized this decision of the government. Lately, there are no news reports of the current government contemplating such an initiative. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
The viral news clip shared through the Facebook post is old and has nothing to do with the present government. Internet search with relevant keywords yielded the original news clip that reported the news.
The news clip dates back to 28 February 2020, and the decision to set up separate liquor stores for women was taken by the then ruling Congress party government headed by Kamal Nath.
Few other news reports which carried the news back then can be read here and here. As per these reports, this decision to set up separate stores for women is made so that women can buy alcohol without any inhibitions. And the government plans to open such women-friendly stores one each in Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, and Gwalior.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the then opposition leader criticized this decision of the government. He took to Twitter criticizing the decision to open separate liquor stores for women. Thus this information establishes the fact that viral news is not taken by the present ruling government.
To sum it up, an old news clip of the previous government’s decision to set up separate liquor stores for women in Madhya Pradesh is passed off as recent.
