Coronavirus: People walk around without masks; BBMP goes easy on them

Cover up

Despite the spike in cases, city residents are taking a lackadaisical approach to self-protection as many disregard the rule to necessarily wear a facemask in public places.

Compounding the issue is the authority’s sloppy enforcement of the rule.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike fined 197 on May 3, when the lockdown was at the fiercest, with 90% of people staying indoors. But the number of people penalised dropped to just 18 as the system to enforce safety measures has seemingly collapsed with the lifting of the lockdown.

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“The rule was enforced strictly for the first four days when the penalty was Rs 1,000 and the BBMP marshals collected Rs 2.5 lakh from the offenders. The state government order reducing the penalty to Rs 200 led to an increase in the number of violations,” a senior BBMP official said.

Cases have doubled in the same period. On May 4, Bengaluru Urban district recorded 149 positive cases, 72 of whom were discharged. But by the month-end, cases soared to 357, with 231 discharged.

Bring back marshals

To a question, D Randeep, special commissioner for solid waste management, assured that there was no slackening. “The enforcement (of the safety rules) have lessened because marshals aren’t doing it. As per the BBMP’s revised order, junior health inspectors are looking into the issue,” he said.

However, BBMP sources said many health inspectors are not active. “The marshals were removed from the enforcement duties after complaints that they were too strict. How can we contain the disease otherwise?” the BBMP source said.

Only a third of the junior health inspectors take the work seriously, the source added. Their service at BIEC and Palace Grounds is quite obvious, but the rest are inactive. “Some of them have no experience of enforcement,” the source said.

Sarfaraz Khan, joint commissioner, solid waste management, BBMP, said the department has asked the commissioner to put marshals in charge again. “Once they are back, the level of
enforcement will be automatically higher,” he added.