Bhubaneswar, April 24: Violators of COVID-19 guidelines beware! If you are not wearing a mask and roaming around or going to shop nearby, then the local officials of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) might target you and collect fine.

Today BMC collected a fine of Rs 17,600 from 88 such violators across the city for not wearing masks.
While the North Zone has collected fine of Rs 200 each from 44 persons for the offence, the South West Zone has also collected the equal amount from 44 more violators.

It can be mentioned here that under the leadership of Municipal Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary, BMC has categorically announced that the violators of COVID-19 guidelines would be firmly dealt with for offence like this as wearing of mask has been stressed by both World Health Organisation and Indian Council of Medical Research and on April 9 the Health and Family Welfare Department of the State Government made it mandatory for all citizens to wear masks to cover nose and mouth _with any available form _while coming out of their houses for any purpose.

The same notification has also included that a handkerchief or any other clean piece of cloth with at least two layers can be worn in order to keep the spread of the virus at bay. As the Corona virus even stays in the air droplets surrounding an affected or carrier person, wearing a mask and maintaining “social distance’’ has become the major tool to fight the COVID-19 global pandemic.

It can be mentioned here that the Health and Family Welfare Department and also BMC have declared that while on three initial offences fine of Rs 200 each would be collected from a person for violating the wearing of mask order, after three offences a fine of Rs 500 is to be collected under the rule of Odisha COVID-19 (Amendment) Regulations and power conferred under the Sections 2 and 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.

BMC sources said, while the Zonal Deputy Commissioner (ZDC) North Pramod Kumar Prusty led the team in his zone, in the South West Zone ZDC Rabindra Kumar Jethi was overseeing the operation. On April 22 the ZDC of the North Zone collected a fine of Rs 8,000 from 40 violators for not wearing masks and roaming around while the lockdown situation is still in force across the Capital City.