Wearing a mask, made mandatory in June 2020, is now optional. During the Covid pandemic, masks and maintaining safe distance saved masses from infec tion. Still, as many as 45,838 citizens flouted the compul sory mask rule and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) collected 32.12 crore from these violators.
Before the pandemic only those who were sick used to wear the mask. But post March 2020, masks became the only way to remain pro tected from the coron avirus. The administration in June 2020 made wearing of masks compulsory to curb the spread of Covid-19.
The Nuisance Detection Squad (NDS) of the NMC was entrusted with the job of finding the mask rule violators. Initially, those not wearing a mask were fined 200. As many as 5,470 people were fined from June 5, 2020 to September 15, 2020. A fine of and a total of 10.94 lakh was collected from them. Later, the fine for not wearing a mask was raised to 500. From September 15, 2020 onwards a fine of almost 2.1 crore was col lected from 40,368 viola tors. So, a total of almost 2.12 crore was collected from those who violated the mandatory mask rule.
Deputy municipal com missioner of solid waste management department Dr Gajendra Mahalle said that as per the directive of the State government the mandatory mask rule has been lifted. The aim of strict implementation of the rule was to curb the Covid spread and not to earn money through fines, he added.
