Did you know Gujarat collected Rs 249 crore from mask violators

New Delhi, Jun 08: Amid fresh COVID-19 concerns in different parts of the country and apprehensions about a possible fourth wave of the pandemic, the civic agency in Bengaluru has made masks mandatory in public places and also announced to increase the tests for coronavirus from the existing 16,000 a day to 20,000 a day.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) special commissioner also said that the Chief Commissioner has directed all the Marshals to educate people on wearing masks. It should be noted that as of now, no penalty have been imposed for not wearing masks.

However, did you know that Bengalureans have already coughed up Rs 16.5 crore for not following covid-appropriate behaviour? Let us now look at how the state governments have collected fine so far by penalising mask offenders:

A large sum of penalties have been collected from those who disregarded it ever since the covid outbreak. Needless to say, the surge in COVID-19 cases in both 2020 and 2021 was mainly due to the non-compliance of the general public.

Bengaluru mask mandate violators

From May 2020, when masks were made compulsory with a step-by-step lifting of lockdowns, to April 2022, after which the mask mandate was relaxed, about INR 16 crore was collected as a penalty from mask mandate violators. Since the second wave in July 2021, approximately INR 60 lakh was collected every month by BBMP marshals. The amount gradually reduced after October 2021, when the second wave had receded.

This is no surprise because the penalty was raised to INR 1000 at one point but later reduced to INR 250 around the beginning of 2022. Despite, there was widespread resentment against wearing masks, several violators had to pay the penalties multiple times until they realised there was no way out.

Mumbai

In Mumbai, the penalty collected by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) from mask mandate violators amounted to about INR 92 crore from May 2020 to April 2022.

Chennai

In Chennai, the Greater Chennai Corporation collected INR 110 crore from mask mandate violators in the same time period.

Delhi

In Delhi, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi collected over INR 154 crore for COVID-19 rules violations, and maximum fines were imposed on mask mandate violators.

Gujarat

In Gujarat, an overall of INR 249 crore was collected from mask mandate violators throughout the state. In Kerala, INR 214 crore was collected for the same.

Odisha:

In the last one year, the data shared by the state police headquarters, shows that around Rs 67 crore were collected in fines from the violations of Covid-19 regulations across the state.

Though the third wave of the Coronavirus was not as deadly as the second wave, and various speculations about the upcoming fourth wave have made the future murky. It is better to mask up and follow other COVID-19 guidelines before it is too late.