Curfew saw 114,152 fines for violations

Even as the city opened up after the Covid-induced curfew was relaxed on June 7 and more people started to move about, fewer fines were issued by the police as compared to number of fines issued during the curfew, which was put into effect on April 30.

The government had mandated the curfew from the night of April 30. However, as Covid-19 cases declined thereafter, the government announced that the curfew will be lifted in districts having fewer than 600 active cases.

Thus, curfew in Ghaziabad was lifted on June 7.

The penalisation drive fine those flouting Covid norms started from May 1 and 114,152 fines were issued till June 10.

Police records indicate that between June 7 and 10, the police issued 8,324 penalties (average of 2,081 per day) for not wearing face masks, while they issued 12,472 fines (average 3,118 per day) during the four days prior to June 7 over the same.

Overall, from May 1 to June 10, 2,784 penalties were issued per day on an average against people for not wearing face masks.

“Even though cases have come down, enforcement must continue against people not wearing face masks or not maintaining social distance. We have observed the severity of the virus during the second wave and all precautions must be taken to control its spread. Enforcement must continue at a higher scale,” said Dr V B Jindal, former president of the Indian Medical Association (Ghaziabad).

Police said they will review the compliance to Covid-appropriate behaviour.

“After the curfew was relaxed, most of our officers from the sub-inspector level and above got engaged in investigation-related duties to clear off pending works. With relaxations in curfew, more complaints were made to police stations and all these activities diverted our resources. These may be the reasons why fewer fines are being issued,” said Nipun Agarwal, superintendent of police (city 1).

He said penalties were being issued since March 1 and that the exercise was scaled up after the curfew began. “It is also possible that as traffic increased on roads, police found it difficult to stop offenders amid traffic. It was easier to catch offenders during the curfew when the traffic was scarce,” said Agarwal.

Police records reveal that overall, they issued 144,901 fines for not wearing masks from March 1 to June 7 and collected about ₹1.6 crore. They also seized 1,119 vehicles as the owners were found violating traffic norms and collected ₹99 lakh during the period.

The records also indicate 4,541 cases were registered under the Indian Penal Code Section 188 against 5,464 persons for violating curfew norms and 5,463 were arrested during the period.

The government issued orders in April to penalise people not wearing masks with ₹1,000 in the first instance and up to ₹10,000 in subsequent instances.

With relaxations in curfew, most officers got busy in pending probes, while more plaints were made and these diverted our resources. NIPUN AGARWAL, superintendent of police (city 1)