The social media has its own positives and negatives. It can create awareness and circulate fake news and sensationalise, thus creating tension.

One such fake news that is going viral along with a video in Twitter and Whatsapp for the last few days is about a train carrying sand. The 14-second video shows a train with a long line of open wagons carrying a sand-like material.

The description for the video says the train is carrying sand smuggled from Karur and was captured while going through Rasipuram in Namakkal at 8.40 am on September 8, 2017. It also says, “Karnataka is on a development path, while Tamil Nadu is going to docks.”

கர்நாடக மாநிலத்திற்க்கு மணல் ரயில் கடத்தல், கரூரில் அள்ளப்பட்ட மணல் நாமக்கல் (இராசிபுரம்) வழியாக இன்று 8.9.17 காலை 8.40 மணி)
கர்நாடக வளர்ச்சி பாதையை நோக்கி,
தமிழ்நாடு அழிவு பாதையை நோக்கி???

When The Covai Post checked with railway officials, it came to light that the train carried slag, that is iron ore waste, and not sand. Says G Venkatesan, the Public Relations Officer of the Salem Railway Division, “The train shown in the video is not transporting smuggled sand. It is carrying slag from iron ore factories to cement factories. It only passed through Salem and is a routine affair.”

Appealing to the people not to believe such rumours spread through social media, he says, “Such trains (carrying slag) are passing through Salem everyday. Unless it is loaded or unloaded in our region, we would not know its origin point or destination. But this is railway load and railways will not defy any rules for transportation of goods.”

Another senior official said railways transported sand in its goods train long time ago and that too for its own construction works as there was no proper road connectivity then. “But now railways do not carry sand from anywhere to anywhere,” he said.