Fact check: Viral video showing illegal vendors selling water bottles in Train is not recent
The main problem with Indian trains include unauthorized vendors selling goods without licenses, overcharging
Claim :
Viral video shows illegal vending of water bottles in Indian trainFact :
The video is an old one, present online since November 2023
The main problem with Indian trains include unauthorized vendors selling goods without licenses, overcharging passengers, selling substandard or unapproved products, and posing safety and hygiene risks. Unauthorised vending and hawking in Indian Train and railway premises is prohibited and is an offense under the railways act. Indian Railways has taken measures to curb unauthorised vending on trains and stations which are not only a threat to bonafide passengers security but also to the cleanliness norms.
A video showing some vendors selling unauthorised water bottles on a train sparking outrage on the social media claiming that the video is recent and shows an incident that occurred on the Kurla express, where a passenger seems to be confronting these vendors. This video is shared on social media virally tagging the Indian railways, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. The passengers question the pan masala vendors who also entered the train. Later the pantry manager arrives in the scene and asks the passenger to stop recording. The passenger criticizes the manager on the poor catering management. This video is in circulation with the captions like “ट्रेन में लोकल पानी बेचने पर हुआ बवाल, यात्री ने बनाया वीडियो #indianrailway #viralvideo #breakingnews #aajnewjdekhakya”
“इस वीडियो को देखकर ऐसा लगता है कि हमारी ट्रेनों में ऐसे रैकेट सक्रिय हो गए हैं जो नकली पानी और नकली खाद्य समान बेचकर रेल यात्रियों के स्वास्थ्य के साथ खिलवाड़ कर रहे हैं रेल मंत्री
@AshwiniVaishnaw ....जी इन पर कार्रवाई कीजिए ये नकली सामान भी महंगे दामों पर बेचकर यात्रियों की मजबूरी का फायदा उठाते हैं। ये वीडियो कुर्ला एक्सप्रेस का बताया जा रहा है, हांलाकि घटना की तारीख साफ नहीं है। @RailMinIndia @AshwiniVaishnaw @RailwaySeva #AshwiniVaishnaw #railwayminister #viralvideo
Here is the archive link of the claim.
Fact check:
The video is an old one. It does not show a recent incident inside a train.
When we extracted keyframes from the video and searched using the Google reverse image search, we found some social media accounts sharing the viral video, but not recently. We found the viral video published on facebook on January 6, 2024 with the caption “Viral video of one of the Indian railways, Indianrailwayoffical”
The same video was shared by an X handle on January 12, 2024 with the caption “Video | Unapproved branded bottled water being sold in 20104 – Mumbai LTT SF Express, instead of Rail Neer as mandated by the Railways. Clip by Activist Jitendra Gupta.”
It was also shared on January 13, 2024 with the caption “Unapproved branded bottled water being sold in 20104 – Mumbai LTT SF Express”
But the video was also shared on Novemeber 26, 2023 on Facebook by a user named Vision News with the caption “ट्रैन में नकली पानी बेचने पर ट्रैन यात्री ने सिखाया पेंट्री मेनेजर को सबक”
Therefore, though we are not sure about the exact place and date the video was taken, the video has been online since November 2023. The claim that the viral video showing unauthorized vendors selling water bottles on a train is not recent.
