As Air India undertakes one of India's largest rescue operations, the Vande Bharat Mission, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, several instances of fake news are doing the rounds on social media regarding it.
Although the Aviation Ministry and the Health Ministry has ensured all proper guidelines and measurements needed for the evacuation of the Indians abroad, videos spread in social media claiming that the passengers on the alleged Air India flight argued over being charged thrice the normal fare as well for travelling without social distancing measurements.
What was the claim?
In the viral video that has spread the fake news, it shows passengers of Air India who have allegedly boarded one of the overseas flights are seen arguing over the higher price of ticket fares.
According to the video, the passengers claim for being charged thrice the normal fare and states that they were then 'packed in' violating all social distancing norms.
But no sooner was it proven that the video was fake. The video was apparently not of an Air India flight but of an airline from Pakistan's airlines as informed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA).
In its statement, the PIB stated, "Video on social media showing passengers on purported Air India overseas flight arguing over being charged thrice the normal fare and then packed in, without social distancing is fake, Aviation Ministry says it is from a neighbouring country's airlines."
Fake video identified
Meanwhile, MyGovIndia the citizen engagement platform has shared a post on Twitter about the fake message. In its tweet, MyGovIndia stated that the message is fake and users should not click on such malicious links.
The Vande Bharat Mission carried out with the help of 64 flights will bring back 15,000 stranded Indians from the worst Covid affected regions like London, the US, and the Gulf countries.
The Centre, meanwhile, has issued a set of additional guidelines for quarantine of returnees from abroad, that focuses on their contacts and isolation of suspects or confirmed cases in private facilities.
As per the guidelines issued by the Health Ministry on Thursday, a large number of facilities such as hotels (including 5-star and 4-star), service apartments, and lodges which remained unoccupied due to the impact of Covid-19 have been allotted for the quarantine and isolation facilities for these returnees.
