India TV Fact Check: The latest fake news case is related to the Army's Agniveer scheme. A document is going viral on social media claiming significant changes in the Agnipath scheme. However, when we fact-checked this claim, the truth turned out to be different.
What's going viral?
A notice is being shared on various social media platforms claiming that the government has renamed the Agnipath scheme to the Sainik Samman Yojana. The viral notice also details several changes, including extending the service period from 4 to 7 years and increasing the training duration from 24 weeks to 42 weeks, among other modifications. You can see the viral post here and here.
India TV investigation
Since Agniveers are selected for the Army under the Agnipath scheme, we decided to investigate this viral claim. First, we used Google Open Search to look for news about such changes on various websites. However, we did not find any mention of it. We then searched the official website of the Indian Army. Here too, we did not find any notice mentioning changes in the Agnipath scheme.
How the truth was uncovered?
When we didn't find any updates about changes in the Agnipath scheme on any official website, we examined the notice further. The most significant point was that the notice lacked an official letterhead or signatures from any relevant authority. This raised our suspicion that the notice was fake. Further investigation led us to a tweet from PIB, which shared the same viral notice and declared it fake, stating that the Government of India had made no such decision.
What did the fact check reveal?
India TV's fact check found the viral notice on social media to be fake. The Government of India has not decided on any changes to the Agnipath scheme. Therefore, people are advised to be cautious of such posts.
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