Talking about the Chandrayaan-3 landing scheduled for today (Wednesday) August 23 evening, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh raised the issue of unconfirmed and unverified reports that ISRO scientists working on the moon mission had not received their salaries for 17 months. The Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh first congratulated the ISRO and expected for a successful landing of Chandrauyaan, but toward the end of his byte speaking to news agency ANI said that Prime Minister Modi should look into reports that ISRO scientists had not received their salaries of 17 months.
"We are proud that ISRO scientists are making an effort for the successful lunar landing of Chandrayaan. We pray to the Almighty for its success," said Digvijaya Singh. "But there are reports in newspapers that the scientists who made this happen have not received a salary in 17 months. Prime Minister should take note of this too," said Digvijaya Singh, claiming that the report was carried by several newspapers.
PIB had fact-checked Tehseen Poonawall's earlier claim
Last week, on August 16, the PIB had fact checked Congress supporter and socialite Tehseen Poonawalla, who had made similar claims that ISRO scientists had not received their salaries for the last three months. Tehseen Poonawalla had made the claims in a podcast whose host is popular youtuber and podcaster Ranveer Allahabadia and whose channel goes by the name 'Beerbiceps".
Check what Tehseen Poonawalla has said regarding salaries not paid to ISRO scientists
The fact-check by PIB which debunked the claim by Tehseen Poonawalla tagged him and wrote on X (formerly Twitter) "Claims that ISRO scientists haven't received salaries for the last 3 months #PIBFactCheck. This claim is #Fake @isro scientists get their monthly salary on last day of every month."