Kerala’s exchequer has received nearly ₹12 crore on account of fines collected by the police from those guilty of violating norms of the State-wide lockdown that kicked in on May 8 to check the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While ₹8.66 crore fine was collected in May, the first eight days of June brought in ₹3.33 crore under the Kerala Epidemic Disease Ordinance (KEDO), accounting for a collective ₹11.99 crore as the lockdown completed a month. This is just the fines collected directly by the police from 20 different police limits across 14 districts and does not include the amount paid through courts.
Police are slapping ₹500 for not wearing masks and ₹2,000 for not maintaining physical distancing as a deterrent against violating the lockdown protocol still in force. Police have fined 3.47 lakh people for not wearing masks.
65,901 vehicles seized
Another deterrent police deployed was the seizure of vehicles. They have seized 65,901 vehicles till June 8. “On an average, we seize around 300-400 vehicles a day in a district. Considering that a district has around 32 police stations, holding the vehicles is not a big logistical challenge. We release the vehicles three or four days later after verifying that their papers were in order and they weren’t stolen or involved in any crime,” said Additional Director General of Police Vijay Sakhare.
However, vehicles were released on the same day in some police station limits for want of space. Police registered 1,18,306 cases and arrested 47,097 persons during the first month of the lockdown.
First Information Reports (FIRs) have been registered against 1,653 persons found in violation of quarantine. “Inspection of the home quarantined done mostly with the help of an app turned out to be effective. Those found violating the quarantine protocol were moved from the comfort of their homes to the COVID First Line Treatment Centres,” said Mr. Sakhare.
