Looks like many Mumbaikars are not paying any heed to BMC’s appeals and warnings to follow ‘Covid Appropriate Behaviour’ amid rising Covid-19 cases in the city. Many people continue to roam across the city without wearing face masks. The BMC, Mumbai Police and volunteers at Railways stations have collected ₹ 40.61 crore till March 11 from over 20 lakh offenders, people who did not wear masks. The civic body on March 11 collected a total fine of ₹45.96 lakh in a single day from 22,980 violators who were caught without face masks in public spaces.
From making masks mandatory to restricting crowds and large gatherings, the BMC has beefed up surveillance and enforcement measures to contain the virus spread. However, the number of offenders has been steadily rising every week.
Till February 22, 2021, a total ₹ 33.06 crore had been collected from 16.35 lakh violators penalised by BMC, police and marshals at various railway stations. The fine amount has increased to ₹ 40.61 crore in just 17 days. “This shows how citizens are neglecting their own safety and even putting others at risk. Even though we are not planning to impose lockdown, we are not sure how long we can hold on if this continues. We are doing everything we can to get a grip on the outbreak. However, if people do not follow norms, our efforts will not achieve expected results, ultimately we will have to impose restrictions,” said Suresh Kakani, Additional BMC Commissioner (Health).
According to an action taken report (ATR) shared by the civic body on Friday, around 14,091 people were penalised by the BMC clean up marshals and an amount of ₹ 28,18,200, another 8,532 violators were penalised by Mumbai police and a total fine of ₹ 16,70,400 was collected. Meanwhile, a total of ₹ 1,07,400 were collected from 537 violators caught on various railway stations.
As per the BMC data from April 20 to March 11, the highest number of 1,46,129 people were caught without face masks in Mumbai’s K-West ward which comprises Juhu, Andheri (West), Versova, followed by 1,11,988 violators caught in K east ward (Andheri East, Jogeshwari, Vile parle). Whereas the lowest number of violators – 30,094 were caught in the M-East ward, which comprises Deonar, Anushakti Nagar, Shivaji Nagar.
Meanwhile, Zone 2 of Mumbai which comprises of F (north) ward (Matunga, Sion), F (south) ward, G north (Dharavi, Mahim, Dadar), G (south)ward (Prabhadevi, Worli, Lower Parel) has the highest number of violators (3.34 lakh) among all seven zones. The civic body collected ₹6.71 crores from Zones 2 alone till March 11. Whereas Zone 5 comprises of ‘N’ ward (Ghatkopar, Vikhroli west), ‘S ‘ward (Bhandup, Kanjurmarg, Powai) and T ward (Mulund, Nahur) has the lowest number of violators (2.09 lakh). The BMC has so far collected ₹ 4.21 crore from zone 5.
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