Mumbai cops to fine 12,000 maskless citizens per day

MUMBAI: Days af ter it began penalising people for not wearing a mask, Mumbai Police decided to intensify its action and set a target to penalise over 12,000 people daily. The decision has been taken in the wake of the recent spike in COVID-19 cases. Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had started a similar drive a couple of months ago and had set a target to penalise 20,000 maskless people per day. Recently the police has been authorised to collect a fine of Rs 200 from maskless people, as mandated under the COVID-19 norms. City Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had recently asked all the zones across the city to penalise at least 1,000 people per day per zone. There are 13 zones in Mumbai, including the Port zone, which has the least number of police stations. Strict instructions have been issued to the senior inspectors across the city to meet the numbers, said the police. According to the police, one half of the fine collected during this drive will go towards police welfare and the other half will be given to the civic body. "In the wake of the recent surge in the cases of COVID-19, we have decided to intensify action against maskless citizens," said Mumbai Police Spokesperson DCP S Chaitanya.

Since March, last year, when the lockdown was enacted for the first time, the city police registered over 29,000 cases and booked over 57,722 people under Section 188 (disobeying the order of public servant) for violating COVID-19 guidelines.

BMC, on the other side, has penalised over 16 lakh people and collected over Rs 32 crore fine since March 2020.