Fact Check: Viral video claiming to show grim flood situation in Vijayawada is misleading
Vijayawada flooded after Budameru gates were opened to protect Chandrababu Naidu's house from getting submerged in Karakatta
Torrential rains over the last weekend have caused severe flooding in several districts of Andhra Pradesh. Due to unprecedented rains, NTR, Guntur, Krishna, Eluru, Palnadu, Bapatla and Prakasam are the most affected districts in the state.
The continuous heavy rainfall and following flood situation have affected nearly 6.4 lakh people while over 44,000 others are forced to take shelter in 190 relief camps. The state government is mobilising its resources including five helicopters to deliver food and rescue stranded individuals.
Due to heavy rainfall, Budameru Vagu river is in spate which has led to a flood-like situation in Vijayawada. YSRCP chief and former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who visited the flood-hit city on Monday, blamed the TDP-led coalition government for flooding Vijayawada to save the chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s Lingamaneni guest house on Karakatta from getting waterlogged.
Amid these allegations, several users claiming to be supporters of the opposition party have started sharing a video which shows several people navigating a flooded area in Vijayawada. The users claim in Telugu goes like this: వరద ముప్పు తగ్గాక బుడమేరు గురించి చాలా చర్చ చేయాలి.
కరకట్ట సేఫ్టీ కోసం బుడమేరు గేట్స్ తెరిచారు అని చర్చ… ఒకవేళ అదే నిజం అయితే ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్ చరిత్ర లోనే అతిపెద్ద చరిత్ర హీనుడు అవుతాడు… When translated, the claim reads: “Once the flood water recedes, we need to discuss how the Budameru Vagu river received huge amounts of flood water. It is said the gates of Budameru were opened just to save the (house of CM Chandrababu Naidu) on Karakatta (from getting submerged). If this is true, then he will be biggest loser in the history of Andhra Pradesh.)
Fact Check:
During the investigation, the Telugu Post fact-check team found this claim to be misleading.
A few days ago, our team debunked the misleading claim of Bangladesh users who had accused New Delhi of causing floods in their country. To mislead the people, Bangladesh social media users had shared the video of Sri Sailam Dam in Andhra Pradesh while claiming it to be Dumbur dam of Tripura which allegedly released huge inflows of flood water in the neighbouring country.
Recent rains severely affected central, eastern and southeastern parts of Bangladesh. The heavy rainfall and flood situation claimed at least 59 lives while over five million people were affected.
While Bangladeshi people were suffering due to heavy downpour and facedgrim flood situation, some users in India started sharing the viral video to mock them and claimed the natural calamity befell on them because the Hindus were targetted during students movement to destabilise the Sheikh Hasina government in their country.
Check the claim below:
The X user wrote in her comment : सुनने में आ रहा है कि बांग्लादेश अपने पापों के बाढ़ में बह गया
क्या यह सच है ? अगर सच है तो पापों का फल फल गया फिर तो और करो हिंदुओं का कत्लेआम और उनकी बेटियों का बलात्कार यह तो बस शुरुआत है #FloodInBangladesh
When translate, the claim states: " It is heard that Bangladesh was swept away by the flood of its sins. Is it true? If it is then their sins have borne fruit. Did you forget that you massacred Hindus and raped their daughters, this is just the beginning. #FloodInBangladesh"
This Lahore-based GNN news channel has posted a video of ‘Keenjhar Lake’ on their Facebook page and captioned it ( گرمی بڑھتے ہی سیاحوں نے ٹھٹھہ کینجھر جھیل کا رخ کرلیا۔۔ ): As the mercury level rises during Summer, tourists flocked to the cool waters of Thatta ‘Keenjhar’ Lake. You can see a heavily crowded lake in the video.