BHUBANESWAR: People moving out of their homes without masks had to face the music on Wednesday as Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation started collecting fine from violators in the city. Civic body officials said the drive was launched in North Zone of the city where Rs 8,000 was collected from 40 violators, Rs 500 from each.
A BMC enforcement squad led by senior officer Ashok Beuria launched drive. The Health and Family Welfare department and BMC had declared that Rs 200 could be collected from violators in the first three instances and Rs 500 after that.
However, officials said heavy penalty was imposed in the first instance itself to check this violation effectively. The drive will continue during the lockdown and enforcement squad will crackdown on violators in South East and South West zones of the city in the next phase, the officials said and added that bringing changes in citizens behaviour is one of the main task of such drive.
"Citizens have to behave responsibly as COVID-19 pandemic has already spread its tentacles across the globe. As the health-care experts from WHO and ICMR are advocating for the use of masks to fight against the virus, we request all in the city to follow the guidelines properly. Our crackdown will continue and violators who are not wearing masks and putting our society at danger will be nabbed," said ZDC North Zone Pramod Kumar Prusty.
As per the notification of Health and Family Welfare Department issued recently, wearing mask outside home is mandatory for all citizens. The notification has also stated that a handkerchief or any other clean piece of cloth with at least two layers can be worn in order to keep the spread of the virus at bay.