Due to the increased daily Covid-19 instances in Chandigarh, the UT government made face masks mandatory in confined spaces once again on Monday and declared that offenders would be fined Rs 500.
‘Wearing of face mask will be compulsory in closed environment like public transport (buses, taxis, auto-rickshaws), cinema halls, shopping malls, departmental stores, shops, educational institutions (colleges, schools, coaching centres), libraries, government and private offices, and all types of indoor gatherings’, UT adviser Dharam Pal, who is also chairperson, state executive committee, State Disaster Management Authority, said in a notice.
The notice went on to say that anybody who disobeyed an order issued by a public official would be fined Rs 500 and failure to pay the fine would result in legal action under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (disobedience to an order issued by a public servant).
Notably, despite a dramatic drop in cases in March, the UT administration finally made masks optional on April 4, two years after the mask restriction was initially implemented in March 2020, when the pandemic’s first lockdown was established.
Masks became compulsory in Punjab on April 21, while in Haryana, they have been required in four NCR districts since April 18 – Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonepat, and Jhajjar.
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