COVID-19: Over Rs 54cr collected for mask violations in Mumbai in one year

Mumbai: The civic authorities in Mumbai have collected fines to the tune of over Rs 54 crore in the last one year from 26.87 lakh citizens who violated the COVID-19 mask rule in public places during the pandemic, an official said on Wednesday.

As per the data released by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), as many as 4,314 people were caught without masks on Tuesday, of which 1,478 were nabbed by the city police. A total fine of Rs 5.67 lakh was collected from these offenders during the day, it stated.

The BMC had made wearing masks or covering the mouth mandatory in public places in April 2020 due to the rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the city, and violators were slapped with a fine of Rs 200.

The civic body has deployed marshals to enforce mask rule at public places.

Mumbai, one of the worst-affected metropolises in the country, has so far recorded 6,61,420 infections and 13,470 casualties.

According to the civic body data, of the 26,87,339 violators of the mask rule, 23,50,159 were caught by the BMC, 3,13,289 by the police and 23,891 by the railway authorities. Of the total fine of over Rs 54 crore collected from the violators, Rs 47,36,62,800 were collected by the BMC, Rs 62,65,7,800 by the police and Rs 50,39,200 by the railway authorities, the release stated.

The highest number of 1,36,707 violators were fined in K-East ward, which covers Andheri (east) and Sakinaka, followed by 1,34,159 from L ward that includes Kurla and parts of Sakinaka, it was stated.

The least number of 36,337 citizens were caught from M-East ward that includes Chembur and Anushka Nagar, the release revealed.