Over 6lakh people fined in Pune for violating Covid norms

PUNE Even as restrictions are imposed by the civic administration amid the surge in Covid-19 cases, people are found carelessly roaming in public places without wearing face masks or even spitting on streets and violating the social distancing norms

PUNE Even as restrictions are imposed by the civic administration amid the surge in Covid-19 cases, people are found carelessly roaming in public places without wearing face masks or even spitting on streets and violating the social distancing norms.

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As of March 10, the district administration has collected over ₹27.69 crore in fines from 6.08 lakh people for spitting in public places and not wearing face masks. A maximum number of penalised people are from Pune city followed by rural Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, said, officials.

Saurabh Rao, Pune divisional commissioner, said, that the penalties collected on mask violations are not a means of revenue for the administration. He said, “We do not have any intentions to increase the penalty amount from the current ₹500. However, we will come down heavily on people who continue to flout Covid-appropriate behaviour. Collecting fines for mask violations is not a means of revenue for the administration.”

Ayush Prasad, chief, executive officer, Zillla Parishad, said, “We have penalised people in almost every village and sometimes even people below the poverty line are fined, but they refuse to wear masks and opt to pay penalty. Despite repeatedly appealing to the citizens to wear masks we find many flouting the norm.”

As of Friday (March 12), Pune district has reported over 4.33 lakh of which 4.02 lakh have recovered and 8,170 have been declared as dead, according to the state health department. Currently, 21,788 are active cases undergoing treatment in hospitals or in home isolation. Pune continues to report the highest active cases in the state.

As of now, the district’s positivity rate is about 14.3 per cent which is almost near the positivity rate which the district saw in August 2020, 19.6%, just a month before the September 2020 peak.

Multiple analysis has shown that the district might witness its second wave peak in April 2021 which could be severe if restrictions are not in place.