Mumbai: No face mask or money to pay fine? Get ready to sweep roads!

According to the officials, this punishment is being handed out as per the BMCs Solid Waste Management Bye-Laws that give the civic body powers to ask citizens to do various community services for spitting on roads.

PTI

October 29, 2020 / 18:33 IST

Representative image

Next time if you are caught without a face mask in public in Mumbai, get ready to sweep roads as part of community service if you fail to pay fine to the city civic body.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is making violators do community service in the form of sweeping roads if they are reluctant to pay Rs 200 as fine for not wearing masks in public places, according to civic officials.

In view of the coronavirus pandemic, authorities have made wearing of face masks mandatory in public to curb the spread of the infection.

The K-West civic ward, which includes areas like Andheri West, Juhu and Versova, has already made several violators sweep roads for an hour to deter people from roaming around without a mask.

Vishwas Mote, assistant municipal commissioner (K-West ward), told PTI on Thursday that since the past seven days they have made people do community service in the form of sweeping roads if they unnecessarily argue with officials or refuse to pay fine for not wearing a mask.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

Show