Mangaluru: The Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) officials, along with the city traffic police, continued their crackdown on COVID-19 rule violators, specifically those not wearing masks, on Wednesday. Those found without masks were charged a fine of Rs 200.
The rising COVID-19 cases and disregard for safety among the residents have forced the authorities to take this step. Although the drive was started a few days ago, it has been intensified to help curb the spread of the disease.
During the drive, a team led by MCC Commissioner Akshy Sridhar, Mayor Diwakar Pandeshwar, Health Officer Dr Manjayya Shetty, and others, fined violators for not wearing masks, including motorists and shopkeepers.
Teams are also visiting markets to check if the vendors and customers are following the rules and wearing masks. They collected almost Rs 9000 in fines from the violators.
It can be recalled that the MCC had warned against violations of the COVID-19 guidelines in view of the rising number or COVID cases in the district.
As warned by the Mayor during the recent councilors meeting, that MCC will take action and fine people for not wearing face masks, MCC officials with the help of City Traffic police have been cracking down on pedestrians and motorists, especially two-wheeler riders. This action was taken following widespread complaints from the public on social media and calls made to MCC. While doing the check, it was clarified that face masks are necessary only when there are two or more people in a car. Like always, trying to give reasons when caught by officials conducting checks on motorists for mask-rule compliance, there have been allegations that action against people is often arbitrary since there is no clarity on the rule.
