Civic officials say the BMC ward offices were given a target of detecting about 200 mask violation cases daily in each ward and it was met on most days of the festival
A clean-up marshal fines a man for wearing his mask incorrectly in Kurla. File pic
Going by the number of people fined for not wearing masks during the 10 days of Ganeshotsav, the city seems to have become reluctant in following the COVID-19 rules.
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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) clean-up marshals have been facing a tough time, and on an average they fined 5,500 citizens daily during the 10-day period for not wearing masks. Data reveals that from September 9 to 19, a total of 55,438 maskless people were fined across 24 wards of the city.
The BMC ward offices had been given a target of detecting about 200 mask violation cases daily in each ward and it was met on most days of the festival, said officials.
Further, sources revealed that the marshals were instructed a week before Ganeshotsav to be present in market places during the festival instead of traffic junctions. Following this, two days before the festival, the BMC had managed to fine over 6,000 people in a day for not wearing masks.
A civic official said, “We are still facing issues of non-cooperation from citizens, even though it is mandatory for everyone to wear masks. Many people are flouting the rule and arguing with the marshals before paying fines. Incidents of marshals beaten up for taking action continue to happen. Before and during the festival, market places were packed and many caught without masks.”
The BMC has earned R57.86 crore by collecting fines in about 28.74 lakh cases of not wearing masks since last year. Further, it has collected R5.06 crore in over 2.51 lakh cases detected in K West ward, which includes areas such as Andheri West, Vile Parle West and Jogeshwari West. The lowest amount of fine — R77.29 lakh from 38,000 cases — was collected from M East ward that comprises areas like Govandi and Mankhurd.
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