INDIA.Mumbai: The Mumbai police have begun strict action against the people roaming in public places without a face mask and have taken action against nearly 58,000 people with the collection of a fine of Rs.1.6 crore in the last 13 days.
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After the police were authorized to take action against people without masks the Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bar Singh Param Bir Singh tweeted “Dear Mumbaikars, @MumbaiPolice is now authorized to issue challans to offenders not wearing a mask too. Every time we fined you for not wearing a helmet or seatbelt it was always to remind you of the value of your life & safety. Same for masks. Please take care. You matter to us,” Singh tweeted from his official handle.
Mumbai has been divided into 12 police zones and the city police are authorized to collect a fine of Rs. 200 from people not wearing masks, as mandated under coronavirus norms.
Singh has asked the city police force to take strict action against those not wearing masks in public places, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Mumbai. He has asked all senior inspectors to improve the performance of their respective police stations and achieve the zonal target of 1,000 such cases per day.
The Mumbai police are making efforts to increase the awareness among citizens about containing the spread of COVID-19, city police spokesperson DCP Chaitanya said. The idea behind setting the target of 1,000 cases for each zone per day is to sensitize people about following guidelines issued by the government about wearing the mask and maintaining physical distance in public places,” he added.
Fifty percent of the fines collected from mask rule violators will be used for police welfare activities and the remaining amount will be given to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Since the enforcement of lockdown in March last year, the city police registered cases against 57,692 people under Indian Penal Code Section 188 for violating various COVID-19 prevention norms. Of these people, 25,947 were arrested and later released on bail. Besides, since April 18, 200, in all 10,490 people were penalized for not wearing masks in public places.
A surge in COVID-19 cases
On Wednesday Mumbai reported 1,121 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally in the state capital to 3,28,742, and the death toll increased to 11,487 with six fresh fatalities in the city.
Maharashtra witnessed a huge surge in COVID-19 cases. At least 9,855 people tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours. The states recorded over 9,000 fresh cases after a long time. With this, the active number of coronavirus cases in the state reached 82,343. Coronavirus killed 42 people in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 52,280.
As many as 857 new cases were detected in Pune municipal limits, taking the tally to 2,11,256, while one new death took the death toll there to 4,579. Nagpur, Nashik, Aurangabad, and Amravati municipal corporation areas reported 924, 593, 449, and 483 new COVID-19 cases, respectively.
On Wednesday the coronavirus figures for Maharashtra were as follows: Total cases 21,79,185, New cases 9,855, Total deaths 52,280, Total recoveries 20,43,349, Active cases 82,343, Total tests conducted 1,65,09,506.
