NEW DELHI: Delhiites coughed up more than Rs 135 crore in fines with over eight lakh violations of Covid-appropriate behaviour norms in the last four months, officials said on Wednesday.
The fines were imposed by Delhi government teams and police personnel, they said. Official data showed that enforcement teams of the city government's revenue department and the Delhi Police booked over six lakh and two lakh people, respectively, in May-August for violating various Covid-related guidelines like not wearing masks, crowding and spitting in public places.
While government teams imposed fines of more than Rs 103 crore, the Delhi Police imposed over Rs 32 crore of penalties. The police also arrested over 15,600 people in the past four months for violating guidelines, it showed. Officials said that nearly 1.8 lakh people were booked and Rs 32.41 crore in fine was imposed in August by the revenue department and the Delhi Police.
The Delhi Disaster Management Authority(DDMA) has authorised district magistrates and deputy commissioners of police, deputy commissioners of civic bodies and other officers to enforce Covid-appropriate behaviour, guidelines and other instructions in areas like markets, malls, restaurants, bus and railway stations.
Over 150 teams of the revenue department, as well as Delhi Police teams, nabbed nearly 1.8 lakh violators in August. These included 1.5 lakh by the revenue department teams and over 29,000 by police, the officials said.
The revenue department collected Rs 26.74 crore in fines and got 4,818 FIRs registered in August for violations of Covid-related guidelines, the data showed.
The Delhi Police, imposed fines of Rs 5.6 crore and arrested 3,838 people for violations of national directives of COVID-19 management.
The revenue department had imposed fines worth Rs 15.16 crore by issuing more than 85,000 challans for Covid-related violations in May. In June Rs 25.19 crore fine was imposed on 1.58 lakh violators, according to the data.
In July, over 2.11 lakh challans were issued and the fine amount soared to Rs 36.21 crore. Violations registered by the Delhi Police were over 83,000 in May, 50,000 in June and 39,000 in July.
The amount of fine imposed was Rs 15.94 crore in May, Rs 10.16 crore in June and Rs 67.5 lakh in July, the data showed.