Additional Director General of Police Jitendra Kumar on Sunday said a sum of Rs 14.61 crore has been collected as penalty from lockdown violators in Bihar.
Coronavirus lockdown violators made to sit on the road as a punishment in Pune. (Photo: PTI)
At a time when the government’s coffers have dried up with losses in revenue owing to the coronavirus lockdown, which has halted economic activities across the country, the lockdown violators in Bihar appeared to have provided the much-needed cash to the otherwise starved state treasury.
Additional Director General of Police Jitendra Kumar on Sunday said a sum of Rs 14.61 crore has been collected as penalty from lockdown violators in Bihar.
“We have lodged 1,956 FIRs, and arrested 1,985 persons for violating the lockdown rules. The police have also confiscated 64,557 vehicles in the state,” the ADG said. The corresponding figure for FIRs registered in Bihar during the past 24 hours is 19. Apart from the FIRs, the police have made 24 arrests, confiscated 1,251 vehicles, and Rs 31.48 lakh realized as a penalty in the past 24 hours.
According to an estimate, Rs 14.61 crore (the money realized from lockdown violators), will be good enough for the cash-starved state, which is also considering taking a loan from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to overcome its financial crunch and run its 3,474 block quarantine centres for one week.
Of late, the lockdown violators have been in the news. On Friday, the Bombay High Court (HC) had directed police to ensure no person is made to face any unusual or humiliating punishment for violating norms related to the lockdown.
The court has delivered its direction following a petition moved by a local resident, which maintained that making a humiliating spectacle of the violators is a serious infringement on their basic human and fundamental rights. Clearly, a penalty is a better option for the cops.
