Pune: Police Imposing Fine For not Wearing Masks Inside Vehicles Also

Mehab Qureshi

Pune, September 8, 2020: Following the orders from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Pune Police has started taking strict actions against violators who are not wearing a mask inside their vehicles as well.

The Pune Police has collected over 25 lakh fine in just three days. Some citizens have been complaining that they have been charged for not wearing masks inside their vehicles.

Vrushali Kulkarni, Cofounder of KEEDA, took it to twitter and said, “In my own car, I can’t remove the mask for a few seconds. I’m being fined Rs 500, yet thousands of people are roaming on the road without masks.”

Many people also complained against only cash payment against receipts which do not give correct details also. “The cops are in a hurry as if they have been given target to complete. They wrote my name wrongly. Also, cash payment is a headache nowadays. There should be an online payment system for transparency”, said a man who paid Rs 500 fine.

This fast track decision was taken after the Council Hall meeting attended by Union Minister Prakash Javadekar and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar. During this meeting, both the politicians stressed upon collecting a huge number of fines for not wearing masks. However, the implementation of this has caused chaos amongst the netizens.

In this regard, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a news conference that there was no directive from the health ministry that people should wear masks when they are driving a car without any co-passengers. “However, If people are cycling, running or jogging in groups, then they must wear masks and follow social distancing rules”, he added.

According to MHA’s National directive for COVID-19 management, “Wearing of face cover is compulsory in public places; in workplaces; and during transport.” Therefore, this directive has allowed the police to prosecute people without masks, even if they are alone in a car with windows rolled up. Nevertheless, the confusion hasn’t been cleared yet.

To resolve this confusion, Punekarnews.in spoke to Joint Commissioner of Police Ravindra Shisve, he said, “We are coming with a written clarification on this”.