Misinformation about freebies sparks chaos, citizens stand in queue to get documents linked

Kolar: Scores of citizens in Kolar Gold Field (KGF) area of Karnataka, were seen lining up outside cyber cafes on Friday, eager to link their ration cards with their Aadhaar cards even before the Congress government could unveil the official guidelines for availing the promised guarantees. This rush was fuelled by the circulation of fake messages on social media, deceiving citizens with misleading information.

Reports suggest that certain miscreants took advantage of the situation by disseminating false messages through social media platforms. The miscreants asserted that May 31 marked the final deadline to link Aadhaar cards with ration cards in order to access the benefits of the Gruha Lakshmi scheme and Gruha Jyothi scheme.

As word quickly spread, hundreds of citizens, mostly women gathered outside cyber cafes, desperately seeking to fulfil the purported requirement. It has been brought to light that these cyber cafes are charging a fee of Rs. 250 per person to facilitate the “linkage” process which clearly was a scam. Police raided cyber cafes and cautioned people.