A post with a link claiming to be that of PM free solar panel scheme is doing rounds on social media. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Free solar panels are provided by the government under the scheme ‘Pradhan Mantri Solar Panel Yojana’.
Fact: PIB through a tweet clarified that there is no such scheme called ‘Pradhan Mantri Solar Panel Yojana’ that provides free solar panels. Also, no such scheme is enlisted on the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The link (archived) provided in the post led us to blog which has details about the schem. It also lists the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) website as the official website for this scheme. The blog post also mentions that this scheme is named as Kusum Yojana and lists the benefits of the scheme. One of the benefits as stated is that an amount up to ₹ 6000 per month will be transferred under this scheme.
Taking a cue from here, we searched for relevant information regarding the scheme on the concerned ministry website. We found that the scheme PM KUSUM YOJANA indeed exists. The objective of the scheme is to increase farmer’s income, provide a reliable source for irrigation and de-dieselize the farm sector. The renewable power generated will be purchased by DISCOMs at a feed-in-tariff (FiT) determined by the respective State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC). However, in the guidelines of the scheme, it is nowhere mentioned about ₹ 6000 assured income every month as claimed in the blog post.
On 10 July 2020 Ministry of Power issued an advisory against fraudulent websites inviting registration under PM KUSUM scheme. The advisory has called out https://kusum-yojana.co.in/ and https://www.onlinekusumyojana.co.in/ as dubious websites. The advisory states PM-KUSUM Scheme is being implemented through implementation agencies in the respective states. MNRE does not register beneficiaries under the scheme through any of its websites and therefore any portal claiming to be MNRE’s registration portal for the scheme is potentially misleading and fraudulent.
Google search with the keywords ‘PM free solar panel scheme’ led us to a tweet by PIB through which they debunked the same claim. According to the PIB tweet, there is no such government scheme with the name PM free solar panel scheme, and they rated the news as fake.
To sum it up, there is no such scheme called ‘Pradhan Mantri Solar Panel Yojana’ that provides free solar panels.
