Special drive launched to penalise people not wearing masks

Till vaccine is found, mask should be considered as vaccine, says Deputy Commissioner

In a bid to implement the mask rule strictly, the Dharwad district administration launched a special drive to penalise those not wearing masks in public places on Tuesday.

Deputy Commissioner of Dharwad Nitesh Patil, accompanied by Zilla Panchayat CEO B.C. Sateesh, Assistant Commissioner Gopalkrishna B., municipal commissioner Suresh Itnal and District Health and Family Welfare Officer Yashwanth Madeenkar and others, led the special drive in Dharwad on Tuesday.

Mr. Patil himself visited various localities in Dharwad, including the City Bus Terminal, Akkipet, Subhash Road, Gandhi Chowk, Vivekanand Circle and other areas, on Tuesday. Led by him, the officials intercepted pedestrians, commuters, motorists and tried to convince them of the need for wearing face masks.

Apart from convincing them about the need to do so, they also imposed fine on them and several of them were subjected to swab tests for COVID-19 infection at the mobile COVID-19 unit.

Speaking to presspersons after launching the drive, Mr. Patil said that the imposition of fine was being done mainly to warn people in view of COVID-19 spread and to control it. He said that so far penalty of over ₹ 35 lakh had been collected from people not wearing masks. He said that fine was being imposed on 500-600 persons daily.

He said that it was the responsibility of every citizen to wear face masks, maintain physical distancing, wash hands with soap water and apply hand sanitisers to check the spread of coronavirus. Mr. Patil said that till a vaccine for the pandemic was developed, citizens had to strictly follow the guidelines issued by the government and the Health Department. “Till vaccine is found, mask should be considered as vaccine,” he said.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Anusha, Dharwad Tahsildar Santhosh Biradar and other officers accompanied the senior officials and imposed fine on violators.