Empty plastic bottle of mineral water gets ₹5 after returning it in Ayodhya? Fact Check

As Ayodhya is in the news recently after the inauguration of the Ram temple on January 22, 2024, a post is going viral on social media with an image of a plastic bottle of mineral water with a sticker of QR code and a claim that people can collect ₹5 upon returning the empty bottle.

What a great initiative taken in Ayodhya. You get 5 rupees for returning an empty water bottle. pic.twitter.com/pDE0QKBW9r

— 🇮🇳 🇮🇱 Amit (@backupamit) February 8, 2024

It has been shared here and here.

FACT CHECK

Digiteye India received a request for fact-checking the authenticity of the claim and our team started with the sticker to begin with. It has a logo by name The Kabadiwala, whose website gives out the details pertaining to the scheme as below:

Essentially, it’s a Deposit Refund System launched by the organisation to encourage people to return the empty bottle and not dump it everywhere in the city of Ayodhya. However, the rider is that the ₹5 is collected upfront while buying the bottle and returned once the empty bottle is returned.

If the price of the mineral water bottle is ₹10, you will be paying ₹15 and upon returning the empty bottle, your deposit of ₹5 will be returned. When we scanned the QR code, a list of collection points in Ayodhya are shown. The Kabadiwala web page has also made it clear that it was deposit refund scheme. Hence, it’s not a unilateral refund scheme that gets every empty bottle a ₹5 when returned.

Other details show that the scheme was a collaboration between The Kabadiwala, a Bhopal-based startup and the Ayodhya Nagar Nigam to keep the city of Ayodhya clean as thousands of devotees are expected to visit in the near future.

Further, The Kabadiwala website explains the process in this video clearly:

Hence, people buying these water bottles pay an extra ₹5 as deposit and then collect it while returning the empty bottle as a part of cleanliness drive in Ayodhya.

Claim: In Ayodhya, you get ₹5 for returning an empty water bottle.

Conclusion: The image shows a QR sticker for a Deposit Refund scheme and not a payout scheme for returning an empty bottle in Ayodhya.

Rating: Misleading —