The Tirunelveli corporation has deployed officials to intercept and slap fine on those who do not follow social distancing and wear masks when they visit public places.
Business establishments that fail to regulate their customers were also facing the music. When reports of people visiting shops without wearing face masks and violating social distancing norms were shared on social media and carried in newspapers, Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish asked Corporation Commissioner G. Kannan to deploy special teams to check.
Business establishments, apart from keeping thermal scanners and sanitisers, should ask their customers to wear masks while they come to their premises and ensure physical distancing until they leave the shops. Customers who refuse to follow these instructions should be asked to leave the spot immediately.
Corporation teams, led by the Assistant Commissioner, in each zone have started booking violators from Tuesday onwards.
“If the violation continues, our team will seal erring business establishments and initiate legal action against the owner for facilitating the spread of the viral infection,” Mr. Kannan said.
A team deployed in Palayamkottai Zone visited a few shops on Tuesday morning and a showroom dealing with mobile phone communication service was booked for entertaining customers inside the air-conditioned showroom. After slapping a fine of ₹500 for this violation, a few more nearby shops were checked and some of them were booked for serving customers who were not wearing masks.
Those who were riding bikes without masks had to pay ₹200 as fine. The team also randomly boarded city buses to check if all passengers were wearing masks and the teams’ operation continued till dusk.
“On the first day of the operation, more than 75 shops and as many individuals were fined for violations. This operation will continue until the infection dies down completely,” Mr. Kannan said.
