Fact Check: Did the Election Commission make any proposal regarding mental health counseling center? Know the truth of the viral post

Fact Check

What are the responsibilities of the Election Commission in India?

The Election Commission of India is an autonomous constitutional authority It is the body responsible for conducting union and state election processes in India. It conducts elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, state legislative assemblies, the offices of the President and Vice-President of the country.
It was established on January 25, 1950 as per the Constitution (which is celebrated as National Voter's Day). The secretariat of the Commission is located in New Delhi. Information about the Election Commission is given in Part XV (Articles 324-329) of the Indian Constitution.

How many phases of Lok Sabha elections have been held so far?

This year the elections are being held in seven phases, of which voting has been completed in six phases. The seventh phase of elections is on June 1. Counting of votes for all seats will take place on June 4.
Step 1: 19 April 2024. In this, votes were cast for a total of 102 seats of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Andaman Nicobar, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Puducherry.
second step: Voting was held on April 26 for a total of 89 seats in Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Rajasthan, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir.
step Three On May 7, voting took place for a total of 94 seats in Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu.
Fourth stage Voting was held on May 13 for a total of 96 seats in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir.
Fifth stage Voting was held on May 20 for 49 seats in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Sixth step Voting was held on May 25 for a total of 57 seats in Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Delhi.
Seventh step On June 1, voting will be held for a total of 57 seats in Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Chandigarh.

If we look at the first phase of polling It was completed on 19 April 2024. The second phase was completed on 26 April 2024, the third phase on 07 May, the fourth phase on 13 May and the fifth phase on 20 May 2024 and the sixth phase on 25 May 2024. Voting for the seventh phase is to be held on 01 June 2024.

According to information released by the Election Commission, voting in the fifth phase of the general elections continued till 11:30 pm. 60.09 percent voting entered the first four stages 66.95 percent Voting for the fourth phase will continue till 11:45 pm 67.25 Percentage in third stage 65.68 Percent, 66.71 percent voting in the second phase and 66.14 percent voting in the first phase This has been done. All this information is available in detail. Election Commission website It is available at.

Has the Election Commission made any proposal regarding mental health?

Absolutely not. There is no information related to this on the Election Commission's website nor has any guideline been issued in this regard from their official profile. Investigation of the profile that posted this claim shows that mostly sarcastic posts are shared from this profile. Actually, there is no truth in these claims. One reason for this is to get more likes on social media.

The name of this profile is The Needle and the claim related to the Mental Health Counseling Center from the Election Commission has been made from this profile on 20 April 2024 at 11:17 am, which has been viewed by 964 people till 23 May 2024.

This profile appears to be the one circulating the misleading claim as it shared a post on April 3, 2024 at 9:47 am stating that after China renamed places in Arunachal Pradesh, Indians renamed Hakka noodles to Chakka noodles. However, no such news has been released. Their website https://www.theneedle.in/ is also not live yet.

conclusion

Based on the facts revealed in THIP Media's investigation, it can be said that the claim of Election Commission of India proposing to set up mental health counselling centres for voters across India is absolutely false. We have investigated many election-related claims earlier as well.

(This story was originally published by THIP MediaAnd republished by NBT as part of Shakti Collective.)