CLAIM
A letter is being circulated on social media under the name of Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, with a claim that schools and colleges in the national capital will remain closed till 8 November in the wake of a public health emergency declared by the ‘Environment pollution authority’.
The Quint received a copy of the letter on its email helpline from a reader.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The Quint was able to verify that the letter is fake and is being circulated with a misleading claim.
On 1 November, after the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) declared a Public Health Emergency in Delhi because of the extremely high levels of air pollution, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to announce that all schools will remain closed till 5 November.
Multiple media outlets including The Times of India and The Hindu had reported this announcement by the Delhi government.
In its report, The Times of India quoted a statement by Manish Sisodia saying, “In the interest of health and safety of our children, it has been decided to keep all the schools, government, government aided, private schools in the NCT of Delhi closed till 5 November, Accordingly, 2, 4 and 5 November be declared as holiday for all the schools."
There has been no further notice by the government regarding any extension.
WHAT WE FOUND
A closer look at the letter showed that the spelling of the name of Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia is wrong. The letter, which appears to be undersigned by the Deputy CM, spells his surname with a ‘y’ as opposed to the ‘i’ which Sisodia actually uses.
Further, the letter itself is riddled with grammatical and spelling errors.
Manish Sisodia himself took to Twitter to to call out the fake letter which is being circulated on social media.
The Quint also looked up on the Delhi Government’s website for any further notification but no such letter could be found.
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