Images From West Bengal Shared as Poor Condition of Roads in UP

Several clues in the photographs make it evident that the images are from West Bengal and not Uttar Pradesh.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

Two photographs which purportedly show the condition of roads in Uttar Pradesh are being shared online by various users including Pankhuri Pathak who identifies herself as the Vice Chairperson of Indian National Congress’ (UP) social media.

However, we found out that the pictures are from West Bengal and could be traced back to October, 2019.

CLAIM

Taking a dig at the Uttar Pradesh government, Pathak wrote that the government which promised to bring Acche Din (good days) is itself in a deplorable condition.

An archived version can be seen here.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

It was also posted on her Facebook account and various other users, too, posted the pictures with the same claim on the platform.

An archived version of the post can be seen here.(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

We also found that some people shared the pictures claiming to be from Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, but this too isn’t correct.

An archived version of the post can be seen here.(Source: Instagram)

The Quint also received a query about the pictures on its tipline number.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On conducting a reverse image search on the Yandex search engine we came across a blog with was published in October 2019. The blogpost claimed that the pictures were from West Bengal but didn’t identify the man or where in West Bengal were the pictures taken.

However, the blogpost had some additional photographs which made it evident that the pictures were from West Bengal and not Uttar Pradesh.

If one notices the hoardings in the background then one can see West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s photograph and other boards in Bangla.

(Source: Aanavandi.com)

The board on the extreme right corner also reads ‘Malda’, which is a district in West Bengal.

Next, if you zoom into the vehicle numbers you can notice that the number plates say ‘WB’ which is short for West Bengal.

(Source: Aanavandi.com)

Although we have not been able to identify how old the images are, clearly, the images are neither from UP nor Chhattisgarh, they are from West Bengal.

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