Within eleven days from the beginning of this New year, Telangana police have slapped 62,711 e-challans on people not wearing masks.
With the Telangana High Court recently passing a slew of instructions, including enforcement of compulsory wearing of mask by every person moving at public places, police stepped up the surveillance.
Fine amount
Out of these 62,711 challans nearly 14,000 had already paid the fines online.
“With the imposition of one thousand rupees fine for every violation, we already received over 14 lakh rupees in the form of fines online,” a police officer told The Hindu. These e-challans were issued in two modes.
In the jurisdiction of Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda police commissionerates, e-challans were imposed using the camera surveillance systems.
Based on the video footage, persons riding two-wheelers without wearing masks were identified.
Challans were sent to the vehicle owners for violation of the rules relating to not wearing masks under the provisions of Disaster Management Act.
“This is similar to imposing challans online for traffic rule violations identified through footage of video cameras,” the police officer said. In the districts, the field-level police officers clicked pictures of the violators using the tabs given to them by the government.
Mulugu the lowest
Hyderabad police commissionerate got the top spot with highest violations (16,569) of not wearing masks, while the lowest was recorded in Mulugu (222) district.
