Marshals no longer monitoring wearing of mask

They have been assigned to solid waste management duties

A citizen without a mask on Ganganagar Main Road in Bengaluru on Sunday. The good news is that ‘over 90% citizens are now wearing masks in public places’.

The small army of ward marshals who had been roped in to levy fines on citizens for not wearing masks or maintaining social distance at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic have been assigned to solid waste management (SWM) duties, at least for the next two months.

They will be focusing on ensuring segregation of waste and keeping a check on black spots across all 198 wards in the city in the light of the ongoing Swachh Survekshan 2021. The entire civic machinery seems to be focused on ensuring a better ranking this year. Though adjudged as the best ‘Self-Sustainable Mega City’, Bengaluru’s rank fell from 194 (2019) to 214 in 2020.

BBMP Chief Marshal Col. (retd.) Rajbir Singh said that ward marshals had been asked to focus on SWM. “Marshals have not been levying fines on citizens for not wearing masks or not maintaining social distance,” he said.

However, the BBMP has ensured that some monitoring mechanisms remain to keep a check on citizens. “There are 54 special teams to ensure that mask wearing and social distancing protocols are being adhered to by citizens. These teams work in two shifts every day in the 27 divisions [Assembly constituencies] in the city,” said Mr. Singh.

These special teams, each with four members, will be in place at least till the end of March. “By the end of March, the second phase of vaccinations against COVID-19 is likely to be completed,” he said, adding that, by and large, the number of violations had come down. “The compliance among citizens to COVID-19 protocols has seen an improvement, with over 90% wearing masks in public places.”

₹9.33 crore collected in fines

Data provided by the civic body shows that over 3.70 lakh cases have been filed against citizens for not wearing masks and ₹8.76 crore was collected by way of fines between May 2020 and February 7, 2021. In the same period, 25,525 cases were filed against citizens for not maintaining social distancing. The fine amount collected during the period was ₹57.06 lakh.

In total, 3.96 lakh violations have been registered with ₹9.33 crore collected as fine.

In January 2021, the fine collected touched an all-time high of ₹1.80 crore with 72,319 cases registered against citizens for either not wearing masks or following social distancing protocols.