Spitting in public places in Noida to attract Rs 500 fine

Shalabh | TNN | May 4, 2020, 23:28 IST

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NOIDA: Coming up with a novel way to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) on Monday announced a fine of Rs 500 against people caught spitting publicly.
The order was issued a day after the Uttar Pradesh government issued guidelines aimed at controlling spread of Covid-19 and banned spitting in public places.
On March 25, commissioner, food safety and drug administration, Uttar Pradesh had put a blanket ban on production, storage, distribution and sale of pan masala in the entire state. Since spitting in public leads to communicable diseases, all urban and rural local bodies were asked to enforce the orders and take action against people who were found selling such products discreetly. Chief executive officer of Noida Authority, Ritu Maheshwari said that provisions to impose higher penalty on repeat offenders have also been made.
Issuing the directives to public health department officers, a team comprising two dozen employees was constituted to carry out inspection in order to identify the offenders. Another meeting would be held on Tuesday to delegate work to inspectors of health department and the strength is expected to go up to 50.
Officer on special duty and in-charge of the health department, Avinash Tripathi said that all this while vigil was not needed since people remained indoors and majority of commercial establishments and shops remained shut due to the lockdown.
However, with relaxations being granted for business and commercial activities in the third phase of lockdown, movement of people is gradually expected to rise in the city in the coming days. The computer cell of the authority is working on developing a system that would help the vigilance team identify repeat offenders.
Officers were contemplating to take down name along with copy of a government ID after catching hold of an offender. The details would be synced to the database of the portal. “In case the same person is caught again, a penalty of Rs 1,000 would be imposed,” added Tripathi. Noida Authority has also decided to resume drive against people found urinating and defecating in the open in the coming days.