As he takes stock of the COVID situation, BMC presents Uddhav Thackeray with data on fines against the maskless on Monday, with '45 lakh collected in a joint drive by civic body, police and railways
BMC’s clean-up marshals fine people not wearing masks at Dadar market on Tuesday. Pic/Shadab Khan
AMID the continuous monitoring of the increase in COVID-19 numbers, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray took stock of the situation on Tuesday and instructed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) officials to be prepared in case of a further surge in cases during a meeting. BMC officials claimed that they are prepared with a huge infrastructure in place and hardly 25 per cent beds occupied at activated facilities.
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The chief minister asked the civic body to audit all its facilities including fire-fighting equipment, oxygen supply, medical necessities among others. The exercise has already been started by the BMC. Thackeray also asked the civic body to instil confidence among citizens regarding why wearing a mask is a good thing. Instructions were also given to keep infrastructure ready as summer is nearing and diseases common in the season will also knock on hospitals’ doors and that the BMC should not be caught off guard.
While a curfew or lockdown were not discussed during the meeting, the surge in number was the only fear and was discussed at length along with BMC’s preparedness. The BMC presented the CM with data on the fines collected across the city on Monday and with details about how efforts are being made to ensure people follow all restrictions. The CM instructed the BMC to go back to basics and make all necessary arrangements as it did during the peak of COVID-19.
The BMC managed to recover fines amounting to R45.95 lakh in one day after joint action was taken against the maskless by BMC, police and railway authorities across the city on Monday. The BMC managed to fine 14,606 people, followed by police fining around 7,911 citizens and the railways fining around 459 travellers without masks, taking the total number of the fined maskless to 22,976.
A civic official said, “On Monday alone, we managed to fine a huge number of people. Thus we gave a warning about how aggressive the entire system is against those violating the norms. As per CM’s instructions, we will audit our jumbo facilities to check on the oxygen supply and other maintenance parts and are prepared with a huge infrastructure as currently we have 75 per cent beds vacant.”
22,976
No. of maskless people fined in the city on Monday
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