Lonavala police collects fine of ₹12,30,300 in May and June - Hindustan Times
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Lonavala police collects fine of 12,30,300 in May and June

ByJigar Hindocha, Pune
Jun 26, 2021 09:58 PM IST

During the month of May and June, Lonavla police collected a fine of ₹12, 30, 300 from people who flouted the Covid regulation in the city

During the month of May and June, Lonavla police collected a fine of 12, 30, 300 from people who flouted the Covid regulation in the city. The first information report has also been registered against 100 people, and fine was collected from 2,237 people.

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“Since the last three weeks, most of the fine is collected from tourists as they continue to visit the twin hill stations of Lonavla and Khandala even after the Section 144 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) is imposed,” said Dilip Pawar, senior police inspector in charge of Lonavla city police station.

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The first information report was imposed on those people who dodge police to visit viewing spots.

“Many youngsters on two wheelers dodge police officials while they were collecting fines from other people, later they were caught when they reached the viewing sites,” added Pawar.

According to Section 144, five or more than five persons are not allowed to gather in public places.

“Recently, we also placed posters on Mumbai-Pune expressway to inform people that no viewing points are open in the city, still tourist traffic is not on decline,” added Pawar.

The district administration has allowed outsiders entry to the main city who have booked their hotel and bungalows for the stay. However, with no restriction on tourist entry by administration, the situation becomes troublesome for police on duty.

“Weekend is a tough job. We have allotted the extra police staff for two days to control the crowd. On a few occasions when there was a heavy rush to avoid traffic jams we left people even without imposing fines,” added Pawar.

However, Lonavla’s traders’ association and Chikki association have requested Lonavla municipal council (LMC) not to ban tourists at the hill station.

A member of the traders’ association on request of anonymity said, “Our 60 per cent income depends on the footfall of tourists, if LMC bans entry on them then we will face more economic crisis. We are ensuring social distancing rules are followed.”

The Bhushi dam – one of the tourist attraction spots overflowed last week and an additional police check post has been created to avoid crowds of people.

“Situation is improving as the number of tourists are declining steadily on weekends after we put up posters on the expressway. For police, the situation is becoming hard to control as there is continuous tourist traffic from both the sides (Mumbai and Pune),” Somnath Jadhav, chief executive officer (CEO), Lonavla municipal council.

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