The Greater Chennai Corporation has come up with the agenda of fixing targets for the civic body officials in collecting fines from the violators who flout the lockdown norms and government guidelines. 

On Wednesday, the civic body has said that an assistant engineer would have to collect a minimum of Rs 3,000 per day as fines whereas the other officials would have to collect Rs 1,000 per day each. According to the reports, each zone, which consists of 15 to 20 wards, has an assistant engineer, sanitary inspector, conservancy inspector, license inspector, and the tax collector. 

Deputed with these officials, the civic body has given each ward a target of collecting at least Rs 1 lakh a day as fine from the violators.  The corporation official said that the targets of collecting fine may differ based on the number of markets, industries, containment zones, and commercial areas. 

The Tamil Nadu government has recently promulgated an ordinance to penalize the violators who defy the COVID-19 norms like not wearing facemasks and not observing social distancing and it has made such violations as compoundable offences where the authorities can levy the fine on the spot or even file a charge sheet against the violators. As per the ordinance, people who violate the quarantine norms would attract Rs 500 as fine. 

People who found not wearing facemasks at the public places must pay Rs 200 fine and the violation of social distancing norms would attract a fine of Rs 500. The government has strictly prohibited spitting at the public places and people who found spitting at the public places ought to pay Rs 500 as a fine. 

If establishments like salons, spas, restaurants found violating the standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the government, they would need to pay Rs 5000 as a fine. Individuals who are not wearing masks in the containment zones will be fined Rs 500. The authorities said that people and a lot of establishments are not wearing masks, not observing social distancing, and not adhering to the SOPs even they are enjoying the relaxations. 

The official said that such targets in collecting fines are necessary to ensure that the official deployed on this duty would take it seriously and the authorities must be strict in enacting the ordinance so that people would understand and stick to the norms and guidelines in curbing the spread of COVID-19 in the city. 

Chennai Corporation Commissioner Prakash has instructed the zonal level officials to strictly enforce the norms and asked to install special teams in the wards to audit and inspect the residents and establishments whether they are adhering to the norms. 

The Commissioner said that the civic body needs to adopt a target approach and the ground level officers must report details of fine collected to the senior officials on a daily basis and further directed the officials to reinforce the norms of wearing masks and observing social distancing to subdue the virus spread in the city.