Mumbai: BMC report does not have number of maskless fined by Railways

Maskless citizens were seen in Kandivli’s Thakur village earlier this month. Pic/Satej Shinde

The civic body has fined around 31,000 people in the past 10 days for not wearing masks while the police have fined 8,656. However, the BMC's report does not report an increase in cases on the Harbour line and on Western Railway. A railways report, however, has recorded cases in the same period. The anomaly points to a lack of coordination between the two agencies.

The BMC has earned Rs 52.53 crore by fining around 26.08 lakh people since last year when it enforced the drive aggressively. Further, the K West ward alone has recovered over 42.95 lakh from over 2 lakh cases. The BMC had plans to increase the fine during the second wave but has not implemented it yet as cases have reduced and things appear to be under control.

As per the BMC, there were 2,574 cases till July 15 and 2,574 cases till July 25 on the Harbour line. Similarly, the report reflects the same numbers for the Central Railway (CR) too. The CR has fined commuters on the Harbour line and officials said that the data might not have been updated in their database.

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In the case of WR, there have been 1,617 cases in July so far. While the BMC report does not reflect the data for the past 10 days, the railways data shows 819 cases in the period. The report points to a lack of coordination between the two agencies.

The Mumbai police, on the other hand, has recovered Rs 8.25 crore from citizens found flouting Covid-19 rules.

A civic official said, "We have prepared data as per our records. If the railways have not submitted data in the past 10 days, then it is possible that we did not include it. However, our aim is to make citizens aware that masks are still important and that they should continue wearing them."