Amid the ongoing farmers’ agitation, the Kerala meeting on Thursday, 31 December, a unanimous decision demands that the center’s three controversial agricultural legislation be repealed.
If one can believe in a viral claim spreading on social media, the government of Kerala has decided to ban the activities of Reliance Jio in the state from 2021. The claim further says that the government in Pinarayi Vijayan has also decided to to provide a network in government. service and cell phones at half Jio’s prices.
One such statement in Hindi translates into: ‘An appropriate response to Modi and Ambani by the communist government in Kerala! From the new year, Jio’s internet service in Kerala will be closed. The government’s own network, Kerala Fiber Net, and the phone starts at half the price of Jio! Red Salute ”.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found the allegation false. The government of Kerala has not banned Jio or started a state-owned internet service.
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here and here.
AFWA investigation
The government of Kerala trying to ban Jio’s internet services in the state would have certainly made headlines. However, we could not find such reports even through Kerala’s leading media houses. We then searched for news reports about Kerala starting a state-run networking service.
According to a report published on 2 November 2020, by ‘CoinThe Kerala government plans to provide free internet to government institutions and two million families living below the poverty line through its ‘Kerala Fiber Optic Network’ (KFON) project.
The article also says that KFON is the first of its kind among states but is similar to the BharatNet project of the Government of India. However, we could not find any report on Kerala starting a state-run network service.
A report by ‘The New Indian ExpressSaid KFON is expected to partner with private internet service providers (ISPs) such as Reliance Jio, BSNL and Airtel to provide seamless bandwidth connectivity in Kerala.
For more clarity on the matter, we reached out to Mohammed Y Safirulla, IT Secretary of Kerala.
‘State governments can not ban any telecommunications network. All telecommunications providers have equal rights to operate in a state. KFON is only a Kerala government project to provide fiber optic connections across the state over a period of time. It does not affect private network providers. Safirulla said KFON does not want to be a service provider or an internet service provider.
AFWA also spoke to Mosses Rajkumar, the project head of KFON.
Rajkumar said: “Through KFON, we are only creating a back-end infrastructure on which local cable TV operators and network providers can provide excellent bandwidth connectivity.”
‘By February, we hope to join about 1,000 government officials by buying internet from ISPs. “The presentation of network to households will take longer and we will have to call for tenders from private network operators, which will definitely include Jio,” he said.
Therefore, it is clear that the viral allegation that the government is banning Kerala Jio internet services in the state is false. Kerala also does not offer state internet connections or cell phones.
ClaimKerala has decided to ban Jio’s internet services from 2021. The government is launching its own network services and mobile phones at half Jio’s prices.ClosureState governments cannot ban telecommunications operators in India. Kerala also does not offer state-owned internet services.
JHOOTH BOLE KAUVA KAATE
The number of crows determines the intensity of the lie.
- 1 Crow: Half true
- 2 crows: mostly lies
- 3 crows: absolutely false
