Collector and District Election Officer K. Senthil Raj has warned that hefty fine would be slapped on the candidate or the event coordinators if the participants of election meetings do not wear masks.
With the COVID-19 cases steadily increasing across the country, the district administration has started slapping a minimum fine of ₹ 200 on those who refuse to wear masks while visiting public places even though the number of fresh cases in the district is less than 5. As the imposition of fine came to force on Monday, ₹50,500 was collected as fine from the violators.
If the violation was observed in a marriage hall during an event, the owner would be fined ₹5,000. The officials had been instructed to conduct surprise check for violators in wedding and the functions being organised in places of worship.
“So far, ₹ 23.89 lakh has been collected from 11,161 persons who violated the COVID-19 norms. The drive will be intensified further in the days to come,” he said. He said that 900 persons were being screened on an average everyday and the positivity rate was only 0.03%. “But we don’t want to be slack which would prove to be very costly,” he said. Apart from 20 government hospitals and primary health centres, 30 private hospitals had been authorised to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to every citizen above the age of 60 and to those who had crossed the age of 45 but with co-morbidities.
The Collector informed that every polling official including the policemen would be vaccinated before April 6, the day of polling. Of the 18,000 polling personnel, 6,000 had been vaccinated so far.
