After dip in Covid graph, Mumbai sees lesser penalties for not wearing masks

On March 28 this year, only 40 persons were caught for not wearing masks in public places and a fine of Rs 8,041 was collected. The figure is a sharp dip when compared to the numbers earlier this month. On March 8, the marshals penalised 2,349 persons and collected a fine of Rs 4.69 lakh while on March 7, there were 2,562 persons and a total fine amount of Rs 5.12 lakh was collected for not wearing masks.

After the outbreak of the Covid-19 in March 2020, the BMC had made wearing of masks mandatory in public places. A fine of Rs 200 is levied if a person is caught flouting the norm. The clean-up marshals, who were hired in 2007 to penalise people for spitting, littering and dumping debris in public places, were given the power to penalise citizens if they were found not wearing masks in public places.

The drop in the number of penalties is also attributed to the end of the contract with the agency hired to deploy clean up marshals. According to BMC officials, the contract ended two weeks ago and now the civic body is reconsidering the decision to hire clean-up marshals. A senior official of the Solid Waste Management (SWM) department said that a decision will be taken soon.

Meanwhile, a source in the BMC also said that since the daily Covid-19 cases have been decreasing, senior officials have been discussing whether to stop penalising citizens for not wearing masks.

Since April 2020, the clean-up marshals have fined more than 46 lakh citizens and collected over Rs 91 crore as penalty. During the peak of the pandemic, the BMC chief in a circular had stated, “It has been observed in some studies that wearing a facial mask can reduce the spread of coronavirus substantially to persons coming in close contact with each other apart from compulsory social distancing measures.”

Last year, amid the second wave of Covid-19, for stricter implementation of the face mask rule and to take action against those spitting in public places, BMC had doubled the number of clean-up marshals from 2,400 to 4,800.