Mumbai: Again, the number of people fined because they don’t wear face masks in the city have surged to the daily number of 10,000.
Both citizens and canporators, however, have accused the BMC cleaning marshal who harassed people with fine.
BMC data revealed that for the past three days, the number of people punished consistently floated around 10,000 every day, with more than 18 Lakh Rs collected in a penalty every day.
However, Corporators throughout the Civic ward, is the opinion that the aggressive few levies amount to harassment, rather than actual motivation for people to wear their masks.
Corporators say Marshal has sided with citizens in traffic signals and in various fields of the sea, even if someone is found to pat their masks for a few seconds, which leads to a constant argument to break.
Goregaon Corporator Sandeep Patel said that BMC instead tried innovative ways to attract Mumbaikars to wear their masks.
“While we all want to be implemented rules, it should not be at the cost of troubled citizens.
They [Marshal] almost bluff anyone who does not have their mask,” Patel said.
Binit Tanna, a resident of Versova, said that Marshals in Juhu had punished people even to smoke in their own car, which was not their job.
“In some cases, people are also punished secretly.
Recently I saw the request of Marshal Rs 2,000 from someone who did not wear a mask.
This is not a way to get residents to follow the rules,” Tanna said.
Bandra Corporator Swapna Mhatre said that Marshal had fixed places in the city where they put themselves and collected fine.
“People at times wear their masks when they see Marshal approach and then pull it again.
We finally have to realize that the mask is needed for someone’s safety against Coronavirus,” he said.
Last month, the daily count of the punished person had dropped to below 5,000.
However, before the celebration of GanPati in the city, and given the third wave threat of Coronavirus, BMC and Mumbai police once again began to torture more than 10,000 mumbaikars every day.
The city reached its peak on September 6, when almost 14,000 people were fined.
So far, the total number of people fined by the authorities from the beginning of the pandemic added up to 34.4 lakh, while the total fine was collected since it was Rs 60.5 Crore.