Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Claim
Maharashtra government launches free night drops for women
Fact
Police launched a free night pick-and-drop for women in Ludhiana in 2019
Several social media users are circulating a graphic, claiming that the Maharashtra government has launched a “free-ride scheme”, where women can call 24X7 police helpline numbers to ask for a vehicle that will drop them safely at home, any time between 10pm and 6am. We received this claim on our Whatsapp tipline (9999499044), too, requesting it to be fact-checked.
The archived versions of the tweets can be seen here and here.
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Fact check
Newschecker analysed the graphic and found the language to be grammatically incorrect at various places, raising our doubts on the authenticity. We then ran a keyword search for “Maharashtra government free ride scheme woman”, which did not throw up any credible reports of such a scheme.
We ran a keyword search for the helpline number mentioned in the graphic (7837018555), which led us to this Hindustan Times report, dated December 1, 2019, titled “Police launch free night pick-and-drop for women in Ludhiana”. According to the report, police commissioner Rakesh Agrawal said, “Any woman not able to get a vehicle to get home between 10pm and 6am can call the police helpline numbers — 112, 1091 and 7837018555 — to request the facility which will be available on all days. A police control room (PCR) van or a station house officer (SHO) vehicle will come and drop her safely to her destination free-of-cost.”
Similar articles on the Ludhiana Police’s initiative can be seen here, here and here.
We also came across this Times of India report, dated December 5, 2019, which stated that the two helpline numbers of Ludhiana police — 1091 and 7832018555 — had gone viral then, following which the Ludhiana police received calls from as far off as UP, Maharashtra and Kerala. According to the article, police officers told outstation callers that the helpline numbers were for only the women of Ludhiana.
We reached out to Ludhiana police and will update this article once we receive a response.
Conclusion
The Ludhiana Police’s initiative to provide free rides for women unable to find a cab at night falsely claimed to be a scheme of the Maharashtra government.
Result: False
Source
Hindustan Times report, December 1, 2019
Indian Express report, December 2, 2019
Times of India report, December 5, 2019
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
