Old video of women waiting outside bank falsely linked to congress’ Mahalakshmi scheme

The viral video is not recent and not related to Congress’ Mahalakshmi scheme. It dates back to 2020.

Congress’ promise of directly crediting ₹8,500 into the accounts of women heads of families belonging to the BPL category under its Mahalakshmi scheme has received mixed response in UP. It guarantees ₹1 lakh every year to a woman from a poor family. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi using the word “khatakhat, khatakhat” to denote how people will receive money in their accounts. Against this backdrop, a video showing burqa-clad women sitting in a queue is being widely shared on social media, claiming that they have lined up to collect ₹8,500/month that Congress promised under the Mahalakshmi scheme. 

The caption of the post states, “Family members of Akbar, Babar and Aurangzeb in queue for getting ₹8,500/month under Rahul Gandhi’s “Khata khat scheme”

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Fact Check-

The reverse image and key word search on Google led us to a similar video uploaded on YouTube on 17 April, 2020 with a caption “In Muzzafarnagar’s Gandhi Colony, there’s a crowd of Muslim women. know what is the reason”.

The description of the video states that the women had gathered in front of a branch of the Bank of Baroda in Muzaffarnagar, UP to withdraw ₹500 credited to their Jan Dhan accounts by the government. There were rumours that if the money was not withdrawn, the amount would not be credited any longer. 

Upon further search we found news reports regarding this. In 2020, the central government announced that Jan Dhan account holders would receive Rs 500 in their accounts for three months following the challenges faced by many during the Covid-19 period. 

Moving forward, we have come across another video uploaded on the YouTube channel of News 18 India on 20 April, 2020. As per the report, women came to the bank to withdraw money from their Jan Dhan accounts due to rumours that the money will be unavailable if not taken right away. Bank authorities, on the other hand, required the beneficiaries to adhere to social distance standards and guaranteed them that the relief funds would not be retracted.

So, we can understand that the viral video is not recent, and not related to the Mahalakshmi scheme.

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo discovered that the claim made along the viral video to be False. The video is not recent and not related to Congress’ Mahalakshmi scheme. It dates back to 2020.