Hyderabad: Face mask violations surging in twin cities

Hyderabad: With gradual relaxation of Covid regulations, people also seem to easing up on face masks. The denizens are exhibiting nonchalant attitude towards their own safety and that of others. Cops are trying their best to enforce the regulations and slapping Rs 1000 challans on those not wearing face masks.

During May 7 and May 13, there were around 1,315 challans imposed in the city and the number of challans rose to 3,892 within five days in. Overall, Telangana police booked around 16,264 violators for violating the face mask norms across the State.

After Hyderabad tops the list of violations, Ramagundam and Rachakonda areas come at the second and the third places in number of cases, at 1,461 and 1,105 respectively.

Penalties were imposed and cases were registered under Section 51(b) of the Disaster Management Act. The police started tracking the violators from May 8 and it was introduced in the Commissionerates of Cyberabad, Hyderabad and Rachakonda and later extended to the entire State.

Alert patrolling is underway to trace the people stepping out without face masks. Artificial intelligence is also being used to catch the violators through the surveillance cameras.

"We are monitoring every corner of the city and trying to identify people not wearing masks through our CCTV cameras installed. If we identify any person without wearing face mask, we provide information to the police personnel in the area to ensure that he or she wears a mask. Strict vigilance to be observed in coming days and we request people not to step out from the houses," said a senior police official from Hyderabad Commissionerate.