The country has been witnessing a big spurt in the number of fresh coronavirus cases as people are increasingly adopting Covid inappropriate behaviour.
This has been observed with alarming regularity in flights and airports that enable people to travel long distances as potential carriers of the virus.
The number of fresh Covid cases has been significantly more than 7,000 per day for many days; reaching the levels of infections seen during the Omicron wave in January this year.
While doctors and infectious disease experts contend that a fourth wave has not invaded India, the dangers persist if people, particularly passengers, fail to take the required preventive measures.
The most widely agreed upon preventive measure continues to be the act of wearing a mask in crowded places and environments.
The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has announced that it will order strict action against airline passengers who do not wear masks. The penalties will range from being thrown out of a flight to being in a list of "No Fly" which will then disallow violators to take any flight.
Overall, a narrow majority of Indians consider this announcement by the DGCA to be the right step.
This was revealed during a nationwide survey conducted by CVoter on behalf of IANS.
While about 52 per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that it was the right step to penalise mask violators, some 48 per cent felt that the proposed penalties were too harsh.
There was a clear difference in responses from genders; with more than 53 per cent of the female respondents supporting the DGCA move, while more than 50 per cent of male respondents felt the penalties were too harsh.
While about 49 per cent of the respondents from lower education groups supported the move, close to 60 per cent of high education respondents supported the penalties.
