Hamirpur (HP),The Himachal Pradesh police have challaned as many as 88,905 people and fined them to the tune of 4, 98, 88,500-00 rupees for the violation of the COVID-related activities especially for not wearing face masks till July 8th from the day Curfew was enforced in the state for the first-time last year.

According to a spokesman of HP Police, this exercise was to encourage the people to wear face masks and follow the COVID-protocols in totality.

He said that the tourists have been throwing the state during the current season in large numbers and were politely requested to follow the COVID protocols like wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing while venturing out.

He clarified that the challaning the public and recovering fines from them was not to cause any financial hardship to them.

The police have only made this point to drive home that the onus is on the public to follow the COVID protocols and to wear face masks at public places.

It’s worth mentioning here that the maximum number of 15,961 challans of no mask challans were issued in the month of May this year, followed by April 9,712 and June 8,259 respectively.

There were 32,670 challans were issued in the state from March 2020 to November 2020.

The districts of Kangra and Una were the major districts located on the borders of Punjab where the maximum number of such challans were issued.

The spokesman once again advised people to obey the instructions issued under the COVID-19 guidelines and wear face masks; maintain social distance and venture out only in case of need only.

He also appealed to the visitors (tourists) visiting the state to ensure that they were wearing face masks and were maintaining social distancing in totality for their own benefits and welfare.

He also warned the people that though the HP police was for their welfare and security, it would not hesitate to issue challans against them if they didn’t observe the government guidelines regarding COVID-19 behavior in totality.

(Agencies)