COVID-19 norms violators fined Rs 3.63 cr in 4 days in Gujarat

Gujarat police have collectedfines worth Rs 3.63 crore between January 8 and 11 from peopleviolating the mask rule for COVID-19 prevention and thosespitting in public, officials said on Wednesday.

The fine for not wearing a mask in public places inthe state is Rs 1,000.

On an average, around 9,000 people were fined everyday from January 8 to 11 for the COVID-19 related violationsin Gujarat, the state police said in a release.

''A penalty of Rs 3.63 crore was collected in the fourdays from 36,510 people who were found moving out without maskor spitting in public,'' the police said.

As many as 1,763 FIRs under Indian Penal Code Section188 were also registered during this period against those notadhering to various directions issued by the administration tocurb the spread of coronavirus, the release said.

Since night curfew (from 10 pm to 6 am) is in force inGujarat's four major cities - Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara andSurat, police arrested 2,944 people found roaming during thenight between January 8 and 11.

Also, 3,117 vehicles have been seized for curfewviolations during this period, the release said.

Night curfew was imposed in the four cities towardsthe end of November last year, as Gujarat at that time saw asudden spike in COVID-19 cases after Diwali.

Meanwhile, Gujarat Director General of Police AshishBhatia has asked all police officers in districts and citiesof the state to strictly implement the SOPs and guidelineslaid down for COVID-19 prevention, and to make sure thatpeople wear masks and maintain social distancing.

The DGP has also instructed officials concerned toconduct regular patrolling and deploy extra force to takeaction against violators.

Gujarat's COVID-19 tally has gone up to 2,53,161 withthe addition of 602 new cases on Tuesday. The state has so farreported 4,350 deaths due to the disease, as per the healthdepartment.