A total of 6,478 persons have been booked by the Telangana police in the past week (from April 5-11) for not wearing masks. The violators have been fined Rs 1,000 each and have been booked under charges of petty cases. Following Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s orders on March 27, the Telangana government has enforced a strict mask policy in view of the rising COVID-19 cases. The three urban commissionerates — Hyderabad, Rachakonda and Cyberabad — registered 3,214 cases, with Hyderabad leading with 2,030 offenders, followed by Rachakonda and Cyberabad with 670 and 514 offenders, respectively.
The semi-urban commissionerates of Ramagundam, Warangal, Khammam, Nizamabad, Siddipet and Karimnagar recorded 1,374 cases. Narayanpet district in the state has recorded zero cases.
Wearing a face mask is mandatory in all public places, workspaces and means of transport. A Government Order (GO) related to the penalty was issued by Chief Secretary K Somesh Kumar on Sunday. Besides a penalty, the GO also warned the offenders of prosecution under Section 51 to 60 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as other applicable laws.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar had advised people travelling alone in cars also to mandatorily wear a mask, citing the Delhi High Court orders. The Commissioner said that there is a possibility of the driver getting exposed to street-side vendors and hence advised them to wear a mask.
In a high-level review meeting held last week, the Chief Minister had said, “If the people do not wear masks, they should be fined Rs 1,000 per person,” and instructed the Director-General of Police to implement the mask policy. The Chief Minister urged the people to follow all the COVID-19 protocols, wear masks, take all precautions, and be alert to contain the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, the state recorded a total of 2,251 COVID-19 cases and six deaths as per the medical bulletin issued on Monday. Presently, there are 21,864 active cases. The state has conducted 79,027 tests