The Pune Police has fined as many as 27,989 people in 8 days.
The Pune Police has fined as many as 27,989 people between September 2 and September 10 for not wearing face masks amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and collected over Rs 1 crore as fine, informed Bachhan Singh, DCP Crime Branch, Pune.
While speaking to ANI, Bachhan Singh said that it was observed that people were not wearing masks as a precautionary measure and so fines were imposed to ensure discipline among all.
"Pune city police have fined about 27,989 people between September 2 and September 10 for not wearing the mask, and collected about more than Rs 1 crore 39 lakh as fine. A fine of Rs 500 was collected from each one of them," said Mr Singh.
"It was observed that people were not wearing masks in the city and Pune municipal corporation had handed over the task to Pune police take action against them.The idea is only to increase the awareness and compliance level among people. We appealed to the people to wear a mask as it's the easiest way to prevent the spread of COVID-19," he added.
The city administration had passed an order to impose fine of Rs 500 for not wearing the mask and Rs 1000 fine for spitting at public places.
Mr Singh further said that after instructions were given by the district administration to take strict action against people for not wearing masks, Pune city police swung into action and fined those not wearing a mask for safety purposes.
With the highest single-day spike of 4,935 cases reported on Friday, the total number of coronavirus cases reached 2,11,225 in Pune, according to the District Health Department.
The death count stands at 4,881 after reporting 87 new fatalities. There are 10,799 active cases in the hospital and 2,380 are under home isolation, as per the data provided by the department.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)